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The Tagalog people maginoo, the Kapampangan ginu, and the Visayan people tumao were the nobility social class among various cultures of the pre-colonial Philippines. Among the Visayans, the tumao were further distinguished from the immediate royal families, the kadatuan.
Members of the maginoo class were referred to as Ginoo. Proper names of the maginoo nobles were preceded by (short for "" or "pamegat", originally meaning "lord" or "master", though it means "title" in modern Tagalog language) for men and (lady) for women, denoting Lord and Lady respectively. The title Panginoon was reserved for particularly powerful maginoo who ruled over a large number of dependents and slaves, owned extensive property, and whose lineage was impeccable. Lower-status maginoo who gained prominence by newly acquired wealth were scornfully known as maygintawo (literally "person with a lot of gold"; nouveau riche). In Vocabulario de la lengua tagala (1613), the Spanish Franciscan missionary Pedro de San Buenaventura compared the maygintawo to "dark knights" who gain their status by gold and not by lineage.
The Tagalog datu were maginoo who ruled over a community (a dulohan or barangay, literally "corner" and "balangay boat" respectively) or had a large enough following. These datu either ruled over a single community (a pook) or were part of a larger settlement (a bayan, "city-state"). They constituted a council ( lipon, lupon, or pulong) and answered to a sovereign ruler, referred to as the lakan (or the Sanskrit title raja, "king"). After the Spanish conquest, these datu were given the Spanish title of Don and were treated as local chiefs.
The immediate royal family of the Visayan datu were distinguished from the rest of the tumao as the kadatoan, which was both a political office and a social class. The purity of the lineage of the kadatoan was extremely important in claiming the right to rule, thus the kadatoan usually only married members of other royal families. The sons and daughters of the datu by his first wife were zealously guarded from the rest of the community. The princesses were known as binokot or binukot (literally "the veiled ones" or "the wrapped ones"), due to the fact that they were usually transported by slaves in covered . Women of the kadatoan class were powerful and revered. The first wife of the datu and the binokot could command the same number of slaves and dependents.
A datu who gained his status by marrying a princess is known as a sabali. A datu who is of pure royal lineage is known as potli or lubus nga datu, while a datu whose four grandparents are all of pure royal descent are known as kalibutan ("all around").
The datu served as leaders and judges. Their proclamations ( mantala) were delivered to the general populace by an oripun serving as the town herald (the paratawag). They received tributes, taxes, and gifts from their subjects, among them were the himuka (gifts from timawa for permission to marry), bawbaw (gifts from the winning parties in a dispute settled by the ruling of the datu), and hikun (the greater share of property being redistributed). They had control of trade through honos (fee for anchoring a ship in the community harbor), bihit (tariffs), and lopig (discounts on local purchases). They also had the power to restrict access to communal property through decrees ( balwang) and their crops and animals were distributed among his subjects to care for in a practice known as takay. The datu, however, were far from being a leisured aristocracy. They were often skilled craftsmen, hunters, blacksmiths, fishermen, and warriors in their own right, and their household produced the best commodities for trade.
Visayan datu were loosely bound to each other in a federation (a chiefdom). Members of a chiefdom had a leading datu who had authority over other datu, usually simply referred to as the pangulo ("head" or "ruler"), kaponoan ("most sovereign", from the Visayan word for "root" or "origin", puno), or makaporos nga datu (unifying chief). The pangulo of seaports with frequent foreign traffic may sometimes take on Malay language or Sanskrit titles like Rajah ("ruler"), Batara ("noble lord"), Sarripada (from Sanskrit Sri Paduka, "His Highness"; variants include Salip, Sipad, Paduka, and Salipada). However, they were not in the European sense. Their authority usually stems from favorable trade positions, military prowess, lineage, and wealth ( bahandi) rather than royal rule. While they had limited power over other member datu of the chiefdom based on their renown, they had no direct control over the subjects or lands of the other datu.
The historian William Henry Scott theorizes that this may have been Ferdinand Magellan's fatal error. Magellan assumed that Rajah Humabon was the king of the land and thus of Mactan as well. But the island of Mactan, the domain of Lapu-Lapu and another datu named Zula, was in a location that enabled them to intercept trade ships entering the harbor of Cebu, Humabon's domain. Thus it was more likely that Lapu-Lapu was actually more powerful than Humabon. Humabon himself was married to Lapu-Lapu's niece. When Magellan demanded that Lapu-Lapu submit as his "king" Humabon had done, Lapu-Lapu purportedly replied that "he was unwilling to come and do reverence to one whom he had been commanding for so long a time".
Below the royal nobility are the provincial governors ( panglima) as well as wealthy people ( orang kaya). Commoners can sometimes be promoted to nobility, known as datu sadja. Usually for outstanding feats or services in line of duty through display of bravery, heroism, and so on. Unlike true datu, the rank is only for the lifetime of the recipient and is not hereditary.
The highest position in female nobility is the bai-a-labi (most exalted queen). This is followed by potri maamor (princess), solotan a bai (kind queen), and bai a dalomangcob (queen). Noble women are referred to as bayi ("lady"), while non-noble wealthy women are known as bayi a gaos (rich lady).
One of the results of this trend was the distortion of the original meaning of maharlika. Maharlika does not actually refer to the "royalty" class as is claimed, but refers to the vassal warrior class. The maharlika were also more or less unique to the Tagalog caste system and that of its neighboring tribes.
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