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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").
In this society, the term datu, 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 could be born as part of the maginoo , but could also become a datu through personal achievement.
In a confederacy forged by alliances among polities, the datu would convene to choose a paramount chief from among themselves; their communal decision would be based on a datu's prowess in battle, leadership, and network of allegiances. Datu: Datus were maginoo with personal followings (dulohan or barangay).
Datu (Baybayin: ᜇᜆᜓ) is the title for chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchs [19] in the Visayas [20] and Mindanao [21] regions of the Philippines. Together with lakan , apo (central and northern Luzon), [22] sultan, and rajah, they are titles used for native royalty, and are still used frequently in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan.
The fourth societal category above can be termed the datu class, and was a titled aristocracy. [5]: 150–151 The early polities were typically made up of three-tier social structure: a nobility class, a class of "freemen", and a class of dependent debtor-bondsmen: [6] [7] Datu (ruling class) and Maginoo (noble class, where the datu ascends from)
Alipin (slaves), [9] which could further be subcategorized as aliping namamahay or aliping sa gigilid. The term datu or lakan, or apo refers to the chief, but the noble class to which the datu belonged to was known as the maginoo class. Any male member of the maginoo class can become a datu by personal achievement. [54]: "125"
The term Paramount Ruler, or sometimes Paramount Datu, is a term used by historians [who?] to describe the highest ranking political authorities in the largest lowland polities or inter-polity alliance groups in early Philippine history, [1] most notably those in Maynila, Tondo, Pangasinan, Cebu, Bohol, Butuan, Cotabato, and Sulu.
He distinguished them from the hereditary nobility class of the Tagalogs (the maginoo class, which included the datu). The historian William Henry Scott believes that the class originated from high-status warriors who married into the maginoo blood or were perhaps remnants of the nobility class of a conquered line.