1. PRE-COLONIAL PHILIPPINES
(B EF OR E TH E CON QU ER OR S
CA M E)
There are a number of distinctions between the modern
Barangay or Barrio, and the city-states and independent
principalities encountered by the Spanish when they first
arrived in 1521 and established relatively permanent
settlements in 1574. The most glaring difference would be
that the modern entity represents a geographical entity,
the pre-colonial barangays represented loyalty to a
particular head (datu). Even during the early days of
Spanish rule, it was not unusual for people living beside
each other to actually belong to different barangays.[2] They
owed their loyalty to different Datus. Also, while the
modern barangay represents only the smallest
administrative unit of government, the barangay of
precolonial times was either independent, or belonged to
what was only a loose confederation of several barangays,
over which the rulers picked among themselves who would
be foremost - known as the Pangulo or Rajah. In most cases,
his function was to make decisions which would involve
multiple barangays, such as disputes between members of
two different barangays. Internally, each datu retained his
jurisdiction.[3][4]

2. THE FIRST COMMUNITIES
 Historically, the first barangays started as relatively
small communities of around 50 to 100 families. Most
villages have only thirty to one hundred houses and the
population varies from one hundred to five hundred
persons. When the Spaniards came, they found
communities with twenty to thirty people only. They
also encountered large and prestigious principalities.
 Theories, as well as local oral traditions,[5] say that the
original “barangays” were coastal settlements formed as
a result of the migration of these Malayo-Polynesian
people (who came to the archipelago) by boat from other
places in Southeast Asia (see chiefdom). Most of the
ancient barangays were coastal or riverine in nature.
This is because most of the people were relying on
fishing for supply of protein and for their livelihood.
They also travelled mostly by water up and down rivers,
and along the coasts. Trails always followed river
systems, which were also a major source of water for
bathing, washing, and drinking.

3.  The coastal villages were more accessible to trade
with foreigners. These were ideal places for
economic activity to develop. Business with
traders from other Countries also meant contact
with other cultures and civilizations, such as
those of Japan, Han Chinese, Indian people, and
Arab people.[6]
 In time, these coastal communities acquired
more advanced cultures, with developed social
structures (sovereign principalities), ruled by
established royalties and nobilities.[7]

4. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND
STRATIFICATION
 The barangays in some coastal places in Panay,[8]
Manila, Cebu, Jolo, and Butuan, with cosmopolitan
cultures and trade relations with other Countries in
Asia, were already established Principalities before
the coming of the Spaniards. In these regions, even
though the majority of these barangays were not
large settlements, yet they had organized societies
dominated by the same type of recognized aristocracy
(with birthright claim to allegiance from followers), as
those found in established Principalities. The
aristocratic group in these pre-colonial societies was
called the Datu Class. Its members were presumably
the descendants of the first settlers on the land or, in
the case of later arrivals, of those who were Datus at
the time of migration or conquest. Some of these
Principalities have remained, even until the present,
in unhispanized[9] and mostly Islamized parts of the
Philippines, in Mindanao.[10]

5.  In more developed Barangays in Visayas, e.g., Panay,
Bohol and Cebu (which were never conquered by Spain but
were accomplished as vassals by means of pacts, peace
treaties, and reciprocal alliances),[11] the "Datu" Class was
at the top of a divinely sanctioned and stable social order in
a "Sakop" (elsewhere referred to as Barangay). This social
order was divided into three classes. The members of the
Datu Class were compared by the Boxer Codex to the titled
Lords (Señores de titulo) in Spain.[12] As Agalon or Amo (
Lords),[13] the Datus enjoyed an ascribed right to respect,
obedience, and support from their "Oripun" (Commoner) or
followers belonging to the Third Order. These Datus had
acquired rights to the same advantages from their
legal "Timawa" or vassals (Second Order), who bind
themselves to the Datu as his seafaring
warriors. "Timawas" paid no tribute, and rendered no
agricultural labor. They had a portion of the Datu's blood
in their veins. The above-mentioned Boxer Codex calls
these "Timawas": Knights and Hidalgos. The Spanish
conquistador, Miguel de Loarca, described them as "free
men, neither chiefs nor slaves". In the late 1600's, the
Spanish Jesuit priest Fr. Francisco Ignatio Alcina,
classified them as the third rank of nobility (nobleza).[14]

6. To maintain purity of bloodline, Datus marry only
among their kind, often seeking high ranking
brides in other Barangays, abducting them, or
contracting brideprices in gold, slaves and
jewelry. Meanwhile, the Datu's keep their
marriageable daughters secluded for protection
and prestige.[15] These well-guarded and
protected highborn women were called "Binokot",
and the Datus of pure descent (four generations)
were called "Potli nga Datu" or "Lubus nga
Datu".[16]

8. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND
STRATIFICATION OF PRE-COLONIAL
PRINCIPALITIES IN THE TAGALOG
REGION
 The different type of culture prevalent in Luzon
gave a less stable and more complex social
structure to the pre-colonial Tagalog barangays
of Manila, Pampanga and Laguna. Enjoying a
more extensive commence than those in Visayas,
having the influence of Bornean political
contacts, and engaging in farming wet rice for a
living, the Tagalogs were described by the
Spanish Augustinian Friar Martin de Rada as
more traders than warriors.[17]

9.  The more complex social structure of the Tagalogs was less
stable during the arrival of the Spaniards because it was
still in a process of differentiating. A Jesuit priest
Francisco Colin made an attempt to give an approximate
comparison of it with the Visayan social structure in the
middle of the seventeenth century. The term Datu or
Lakan, or Apo refers to the chief, but the noble class to
which the Datu belonged or could come from was
the Maginoo Class. One maybe born a Maginoo, but he
could become a Datu by personal achievement. In the
Visayas, if the Datu had the personality and economic
means, he could retain and restrain competing peers,
relatives, and offspring.[18]
 The term Timawa came into use in the social structure of
the Tagalogs within just twenty years after the coming of
the Spaniards. The term, however, was being applied to
former Alipin (Third Class) who have escaped bondage by
payment, favor, or flight. The Tagalog Timawas did not
have the military prominence of the Visayan Timawa. The
warrior class in the Tagalog society was present only in
Laguna, and they were called the Maharlika Class. At the
early part of the Spanish regime, the number of their
members who were coming to rent land from their Datus
was increasing.[19]

10.  Unlike the Visayan Datus, the Lakans and Apos of
Luzon could call all non-Maginoo subjects to work in
the Datu’s fields or do all sorts of other personal
labor. In the Visayas, only the Oripuns were obliged
to do that, and to pay tribute besides. The Tagalog
who works in theDatu’s field did not pay him tribute,
and could transfer their allegiance to another Datu.
[20]

11.  The Visayan Timawa neither paid tribute nor
performed agricultural labor. In a sense, they were
truly aristocrats. The Tagalog Maharlika did not
only work in his Datu’s field, but could also be
required to pay his own rent. Thus, all non-
Maginoo formed a common economic class in some
sense, though this class had no designation.[21]
 There are two types of persons belonging to
the alipin class . The Aliping Namamahay who
served his master in his own fields, and Aliping
Saguiguilid who lived in the peripheral areas of his
master's house.

12. HISPANIZATION
(A R R I V A L O F T H E S P A N I A R D S
 Upon the arrival of the Spanish, smaller ancient
barangays were combined to form towns. Every
barangay within a town was headed by the
cabeza de barangay (barangay chief), who formed
part of the Principalía - the elite ruling class of
the municipalities of the Spanish Philippines.
This position was inherited from the first datus,
and came to be known as such during the
Spanish regime. The Spanish Monarch ruled
each barangay through the Cabeza, who also
collected taxes (called tribute) from the residents
for the Spanish Crown.