[2] The Maragtas is a work by Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro titled (in English translation) History of Panay from the first inhabitants and the Bornean immigrants, from which they descended, to the arrival of the Spaniards.

[7][8] Historian Robert Nicholl implied that the Srivijayans of Sumatra, Vijayans of Vijayapura at Brunei and the Visayans in the Philippines were all related and connected to each other since they form one contiguous area.

According to local oral legends and this book, ten datus of Borneo (Sumakwel, Bangkaya, Paiburong, Paduhinog, Dumangsol, Dumangsil, Dumaluglog, Balensuela, and Lubay, who were led by Datu Puti) and their followers fled to the sea on their barangays and sailed north to flee from the oppressive reign of their paramount ruler Datu Makatunaw.

[4][5][11] Meanwhile, Monteclaro's Maragtas (1907) state that the ten datus and the Ati chief Marikudo and his wife Maniwantiwan[Notes 7]only met at Sinugbohan, also located within San Joaquin and negotiated in the same area, never heading towards the Jalaur River.

A golden salakot and long pearl necklace (called Manangyad in Kinaray-a, from the Kiniray-a term sangyad, which means "touching the ground when worn") was given in exchange for the plains of Panay.

[17] Following the religious ceremony, the priest indicated that 'it was the will of the gods that they should settle not at Andona, but rather at a place some distance to the east called Malandog' (now a barangay in Hamtik, Province of Antique), where there was both much fertile agricultural land and an abundant supply of fish in the sea.

[17] After the establishment of the settlement in Sinugbohan, Datu Sumakwel invoked a council of datus to plan for common defense and a system of government.

However this is disputed, and in contrast to linguistic studies such as works of David Zorc, who suggested that the Tagalog people may have originated from Eastern Visayas or Northeastern Mindanao rather than Panay.

A discovery of an ancient tomb preserved among the Bicolanos refers to some of the same gods and personages mentioned in a Panay manuscript examined by anthropologists during the 1920s.

These settlements continued to exist down to the time of the Spanish regime and formed centers, around which the later population of the three provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, and Antique grew up.

[7] The Bornean warriors Labaodungon and Paybare, after learning of this injustice from their father-in-law Paiburong, sailed to Odtojan in Borneo where Makatunaw ruled.

Using local soldiers recruited from the Philippines as well as fellow pioneers, the warriors sacked the city, killed Makatunaw and his family, retrieved the stolen properties of the 10 datus, enslaved the remaining population of Odtojan, and sailed back to Panay.

[4] The datu class was at the top of a divinely sanctioned and stable social order in a Sakop or Kinadatuan (Kadatuan in ancient Malay; Kedaton in Javanese; and Kedatuan in many parts of modern Southeast Asia), which is elsewhere commonly referred to also as barangay.

The Kadatuan (members of the Visayan datu class) were compared by the Boxer Codex to the titled Lords (Señores de titulo) in Spain.

[21] As Agalon or Amo (Lords),[22] the datus enjoyed an ascribed right to respect, obedience, and support from their Ulipon (Commoner) or followers belonging to the Third Order.

[23] 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.

[24] These well-guarded and protected highborn women were called Binukot,[25] the datus of pure descent (four generations) were called "Potli nga Datu" or "Lubus nga Datu",[26] while a woman of noble lineage (especially the elderly) are addressed by the inhabitants of Panay as "Uray" (meaning: pure as gold), e.g., Uray Hilway.