i know that Wikipedia is unreliable as far as obtaining facts is concerned but i could not help but notice this on the Former Operators section of the M48 Patton wikipedia page:

did the Philippine Army, at one point in its history, have M48A2 Pattons in service?

my memory is not 100% sure , but i think the "M48A2" refers to a particular model of the sherman tank, something like M-4 Sherman series A2 or 8A2 or something to that effect.

Nope.

However according Janes Sentinel Southeast Asia 2007-2008, the AFP recieved 3 Excocet missilles in 1993?

this exocet missile delivery is similar or related to other purported delivieries like the retrofitting of a few F-5 PAF jets with missiles by our singaporean friends during the 1995 crisis with our charming giant neighbor and the purported Spike missile delievery a few years ago.

All I can say is that if any of these deliveries are true, they will be denied anyway because such weapons have a strategic importance in our war plans as they can deliver devastating effect when applied with the element of surprise.some things are better left in the state of a guessing game..keep them guessing.

along similar lines, as mentioned in passing before, the most powerful strategic weapon in the army inventory is the 155mm so much so that it requires division/brigade level authority before it can be fired. in the mid-1990s there was an army request to purchase around fifty 155mms for choke point control of our coastal straits and shipping lanes among other reasons, and this request has been renewed again recently, although, as a lowly civilian, i am not privy as to how many 155mms they want this time.

This might explain things:

A lot of U.S. military gear was transhipped through the U.S. military bases during the Vietnam war. As a kid, I have seen convoys of tanks transiting between Clark and Subic, among other interesting stuff. These convoys always had military escorts, complete with flashing lights and sirens, and do not stop for anything. I believe the catch is, for the tanks to use Philippine roads (which were fixed and beefed up prior), they have to be "owned" by the Philippines. This is much like the arrangement used by the USAF/CIA(?) in training South Vietnamese A-26 pilots in Philippine airspace. The planes were "owned" and "crewed" by PAF pilots. There is a similar arrangement in place today for other stuff but that is a topic for another day..