Paramount rulers in early Philippine history
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.
[3] In communities which historically had strong political or trade connections with Indianized polities in Indonesia and Malaysia, the Paramount Ruler was called a Rajah.
These alliance units, made up of perpetually shifting leader-focused factions, represented the extension of […] power over individuals and groups through various alliance-building strategies, but not over geographically distinct districts or territories.
[7] Although the position of Datu could be inherited, the maginoo could decide to choose someone else to follow within their own class, if that other person proved a more capable war leader or political administrator.
'King', 'Monarch' by the Chinese officials they conducted trade with mainly from Southern Fujian, and later initially understood by early Spanish chroniclers such as Pigafetta and Rodrigo de Aganduru Moriz as 'Kings'.
[9][3] In a more careful ethnographic observation, San Buenaventura (1613, as cited by Junker, 1990 and Scott, 1994) later noted that Tagalogs only applied the term Hari (King) to foreign monarchs, rather than their own leaders.
[3] Although popular portrayals and early nationalist historical texts sometimes depict Philippine paramount rulers as having broad sovereign powers and holding vast territories, critical historiographers such as Jocano,[7]: 160–161 Scott,[3] and Junker[9] explain that historical sources clearly show paramount leaders exercised only a limited degree of influence, which did not include claims over the barangays and territories of less-senior datus.
For example, F. Landa Jocano, in his seminal work "Filipino Prehistory:Rediscovering Precolonial Heritage",[7]: 160–161 notes: "Even if different Barangays entered into alliances with one another, there was no sovereign datu over them.
"[9] This explanation of the limited powers of a paramount leader in cultures throughout the Philippine archipelago explains the confusion experienced by Martin de Goiti during the first Spanish forays into Bulacan and Pampanga in late 1571.
