Alipin

The alipin refers to the lowest social class among the various cultures of the Philippines before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The concept of the alipin relied on a complex system of obligation and repayment through labor in ancient Philippine society, rather than on the actual purchase of a person as in Western and Islamic slavery.

[9] While the alipin does, indeed, serve another person, historians note that translating the term as "slave" in the western sense of the word may not be fully justifiable.

[12] The lowest class of alipin originating from prisoners-of-war were traded like market goods initially.

But unlike Western slaves, subsequent transfer of the alipin to a new master was priced at the value of the [remaining] bond.

Most alipin usually acquired their status either voluntarily (usually because of material or honor debt, or as a form of assistance to impoverished relatives), by inheriting the status of their parents, as a form of legal punishment for crime, or by being spared from execution after being captured in wars or raids.

[2][9] The inheritance of the alipin status was subject to a complex system of rules dependent on the offspring's condition known as the saya.