Sicat, Ivy Sta Ana, Marco

Simon, Sophia Sto Domingo, Patricia

Soliman, Jevica Suplemento, Jerson
4A-Pharmacy
This study contains the summary of the 16 th century Filipino class structure that is preserved in
Spanish sources. Four of these accounts of the volume entitled the Philippine at the Spanish contract
were written for the purpose of understanding Filipino Society so that colonial administrators could
make use of indigenous institutions to govern the new subjects. The problems were many and these
accounts were not written by social scientist just to distinguish legislative, judicial, and executive
functions in native governments, nor indicate whether datu is a political office or a social class. On one
page it talks about the life and death authority of a ruing chief but on the next that these subjects
wander off to join some chief whenever they like it.

They describe the second social class as freemen which is neither rich nor poor as if liberty were
an economic attribute, while one account calls them plebeians and another gentlemen and cavaliers. As
we speak of Maharlika whom the modern Filipino known as noblemen shows up as oarsmen rowing
their masters boat or harvesting his crops. The third category is called slaves which is to be sold in
domestic or foreign markets when captured in raids and a sacrifice alive for their master’s funeral. There
had been confusions in the data as recorded that’s why they made more so by the need to translate 16 th
century Spanish terms which has no equivalent in modern English. Thus pechero becomes commoner
and loses its significance as somebody who renders feudal dues.

There were seven documents that were used in the study to resolve such contradictions that
inspired present study. One of which is Miguel de Loarca (works entitled Miguel de Loarca’s Relacion de
las Islas Filipinas in 1582) who was an encomendero in Arevalo, Panay, with ten years’ experience in
operation of a shipyard in Oton that’s why it’s not surprising he has more economic details than the
others. Juan de Plasencia, (works entitled Juan de Plasencia’s Relacion de las costumbres que los indios
se han tener en estas islas in 1589) a Francisian missionary who translated Doctrina Cristiana which was
the first book publish in the Philippines after his death. It talks about personal experience, careful
observation, and thoughtful reflection of parishioners’ customs. Pedro Chirino (work entitled Relacion
de las Islas Filipinas in1604) was a Jesuit who served in Visayas and Luzon during the 1590’s. His work is
scholarly, organized, and edited for publication, but contains data on social structure that tells the story
of his Society’s early evangelizing efforts in the Philippines. Morga (work entitled Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas in 1604) was a Doctor of Canon Law and had no experience at the barrio level. His work
Succesos is a professional, highly literate, and chronologically arranged history in which the first eight
chapters focuses on the description of archipelago and its people on his generation. Francisco Alcina
(works’ unpublished Historia de las Islas e Indios de las Bisayas in 1688) was a Jesuit who spent 30 years
learning the customs of the people in Samar and Leyte before writing his work on Visayan ethnography
and natural science. His nine chapters on preconquest Filipino government, warfare, and slavery remain
the most penetrating study of Philippine society in the Spanish period.

The objectives of the study was to discover a distinct, non-contradictory, and functional
meaning for each Filipino term used in the Spanish accounts. The methodology has 4 stages. First,
original texts were compared and examined with all such Spanish terms as principals and esclavos, etc.,
removed. The second are allegations that Spain uses Filipino terms during the first century of occupation
and was examined in contemporary dictionaries, decrees, and correspondence. Third, there were
Filipino classes who ought to study Spanish term during the 16 th century, and lastly, a synthesis was
attempted to solve all contradictions about socioeconomic changes during the second half of the 16 th
century. The results obtained two sections, one from Luzon and Visayas are presented. In Luzon, Father
Plasencia divided four social conditions or “estates” of Filipinos namely Principales, Hidalgos, Pecheros,
esclavos. He separated Principales from Pecheros stating that Principales are like “knights” and datus.
They can be a holder of the office and not a member of class while Pecheros known as tribute-payer is
described as slaves. He distinguish three estates in a separate treaties on custom law, those of ruler,
ruled, and slaved. Morga also does not equate principal with datu. Plasencia translates “Lord God” as
Panginoon Dios, and one of the leaders who surrendered the Port of Manila in 1571 was Maginoo
Marlanaway. The word puno is defined as “principal or head of a lineage”, ginoo as “noble by lineage
and parentage, family, and descent, and a maginoo as “principal in lineage or parentage”, and senor
(lord) is equated with all three. The class constituted a birthright aristocracy with claims to respect,
obedience, and support from those of subordinate status.
Sicat, Ivy Sta Ana, Marco
Simon, Sophia Sto Domingo, Patricia
Soliman, Jevica Suplemento, Jerson
4A-Pharmacy
People in the second state had the right to shift allegiance from one maginoo to another and
called libres or libertos, in later Spanish accounts and freemen in modern English. They were not free
and serve as a vassals who rendered service to some other lord. Some paid feudal dues in the form of
agricultural labor and were called timawa, while others renders military service and were called
maharlika. The third state were called alipin, in Spanish term slave. The Academia defines esclavo as
“one who lacks liberty because they are under someone” so the term can’t connote chattel or captive.

THE FIRST ESTATE

A datu must be a member of the maginoo class and it means “he is the ruler of a barangay” (barrio of
people subject to one). Plasencia speculates that the role of datu arose from the captain of the boat
migrating to the Philippines with his family, relatives, and servants. A barangay can vary in size from
thirty to a hundred households and was normally part of a settlement (pueblo) which included other
barangays that are either contiguous to it or at some distance. The land they occupy are called bayan
meaning “place for a pueblo”. A given barangay might have claims to swidden land in more than one
bayan and serfs (alipin namamahay) might be inherited from one barangay to another but could not be
removed from the bayan itself. The Boxer manuscript thinks that 3 or 4 datus are normal in places like
Taytay, Rizal in contrast to 1 or 2 in Visayas. If 10 or more datus live in the same pueblo, they obey the
wealthiest among them. Morga argues that only the best warriors are obeyed while Plasencia insists
that datus were not subject to one another at all except by way of friendship and kinship. He adds that
the chiefs helped one another with their barangays in the wars they had. Datus are also calle “señores
de titulo” and the eligibility for title is maginoo lineage. it is exercised only by men and it passes through
the male line from father to son or brother. The office is the source of the datu’s authority, but his
power depends upon the fealty of men in the Second Estate and the support of the Third. Their choice is
usually the best warrior. A powerful datu is also a popular datu and it can attract others of their peers.
Important legislative decisions are made by the chief datu’s calling them all together and securing their
acquiesce and his large house serving as the barrio hall. He hears sworn testimony, and hands down a
decision in the presence of his people and sometimes with the assistance of older men. The provisions
of all are handed down by tradition but are liable to amendment by consensus among ruling datus.
Penalties vary with the relative social status of the parties which include restitution or indemnification.

Members of the Second Estate are called timawa, in which is translated to “common people”: la genta
común and “plebeians”: plebeyos. And these terms has suggested ineligibility to marry a person of royal
blood. They enjoy agricultural rights both to use and give. Membership in the Second Estate is largely
acquired. They can absorb the illegitimate offspring of maginoo with their unmarried slaves and married
serfs from the First Estate, and having successfully repaid debts and those who purchased their freedom
with gold which are from the Third Estate. San Buenaventura defined timawa as without servitude :
esclavonia, neither rich nor poor and manga timawa as the free, the common people after magnates.
And is illustrates as the example titimawain kita : I’ll set thee free. Another member of the Second Estate
are maharlika’s who render military service and accompanies his captain wherever he goes. Some may
say that maharlika’s are diluted maginoo blood. And are said to be less free than the ordinary timawa.
Plasencia called maharlika “hidalgos”.

Members of the Third Estate include the alipin, which is a man in debt to another man, a
subordinationthat is not contractual but instead obligatory. Boxer manuscript makes a remark that there
is a kind of slave of both namamahay and gigilid status called tagalos. Alipin Namamahay, a slave which
answers to his master’s call, and joins him abroad, not as a warrior but his rower of the boat. A man can
enter namamahay though dropping from the Second Estate, inheriting it from your namamahay parents
or rising from gigilid statu. Alipin Namamahay eat out of their masters pot. Alipin sa Gigilid are members
of their master’s household. Gigilid and Namamahay accurately depend on man’s residence.

The Spanish describes the aliping namamahay and sagigilid as if a man raised a gigilid slave to manhood,
married him as a namamahay householder, and then seized one of his children to raise as sagigilid slave.
These categories would be fully functional only in a society in which real slavery was limited to domestic
service. The confusion of alipin status was brought to Spanish attention. They saw themselves divided
into three divinity sanctioned orders: timawa, alipin, oripun. The word datu is used both as political and
Sicat, Ivy Sta Ana, Marco
Simon, Sophia Sto Domingo, Patricia
Soliman, Jevica Suplemento, Jerson
4A-Pharmacy
social title. The class is a brightest aristocracy or royalty careful to preserve its porters bound by oath of
allegiance. The supporters or timawa serves as datu’s comrades at arms or personal bodyguards, testing
their wine for poison. The datu’s main function is to lead the war. It takes all form of raiding, trading or a
combination of both. A captured datu is treated with respect. Those men who surrender may not be
killed, and the weak and effeminate are handled gently.

The Second Order

The timawa are personal vassals of a datu to whom they bind themselves as seafaring warriors. They do
not pay tribute nor do agricultural labor. They have a portion of datu blood in their veins. A timawa
performs certain responsibilities in the datu’s life such as row and fight for his datu’s warship, attend all
his feasts and act as his wine-taster. In exchange, datus protect the timawas by defending them against
their enemies. The timawas’ relationship with their datus are highly personal – they behave like their
relatives. Although timawas are allowed to lend and borrow money or make business partnerships, their
children will only inherit at depending on the datu’s decision. Timawas are the means by which the
datus strengthen their authority and expand their power.

The Third Order

Oripuns are commoners who cannot marry people of royal blood (datus) and they are obliged to serve
and support the aristocracy of the First Order and the privileged of the Second Order. Their usual service
is agricultural labor. They also perform communal work as house-building but they do not perform field
labor, instead they pay reconcimiento. Oripun are born into the Third Order just as datus and timawa
are born into but their position within the order depends on certain circumstances such as inherited or
acquired debt, commuted criminal sentences, or victimization by the more powerful.

There are 3 subclasses of Oripun:

1. Tumataban

- “most respected” commoner

- They occupy their own house

- They maintain their own families

- They can be bonded for six pesos

- Their creditor can enjoy five days of their labor per month

- They give 72 days of labor a year

2. Tumaranpok

- They occupy their own house

- They maintain their own families

- They are bonded for 12 pesos, which four out of seven days are rendered.

- They give 208 days of labor a year

3. Ayuey
Sicat, Ivy Sta Ana, Marco
Simon, Sophia Sto Domingo, Patricia
Soliman, Jevica Suplemento, Jerson
4A-Pharmacy
- “the most enslaved of all”

- They are at the bottom of the oripun social scale

- They live in their master’s house and receive food and clothing from him

- They have no property of their own

- They usually do field work for 12 pesos

- They are given a separate house when they marry but their wives work as domestic servants in
their master’s house

CONCLUSION

All the details in this summary reflect Tagalog and Visayan social classes and how they differ and
represent the agricultural aspects, slavery, and the power of the ruling class. These facts are details
essential in figuring out the history of the Philippines, the lifestyle Filipino forefathers, and a look back
on the agricultural production of the Philippines in the past.