Seeking information about crossbow use in Philippines

[wildwolberine]

I’ve seen a few scattered references to crossbow use in the Philippines. Does anyone have any references or firsthand experience?

A google search will show the common roughly made Vietnam war era souvenir crossbows. Ive added an older photo of a Filipino man with a crossbow, I’m not sure if this is a traditional form or something improvised for a weapon. But it’s interesting the projectile seems two have two wire tips, like those described in the 1931 source below

Two references:

Hornell, James (1950). Fishing In Many Waters. (The source is Aldaba)

Aldaba, V. C. (1931). Fishing Methods in Laguna de Bay. Philippine Journal of Science, vol. XLV, pp. 1-28. I accessed this through archive.org.

From what I can tell from Aldabra’s notes the crossbow might have resembled the souvenir crossbows or perhaps Southeast Asian crossbows. He notes they were primarily used for taking snakehead fish.

I’m afraid I don’t have much else to offer!