Principalía

[b] However, a royal decree dated December 20, 1863 (signed in the name of Queen Isabella II by the Minister of the Colonies, José de la Concha), made possible the creation of new principales under certain defined criteria, among which was proficiency in the Castilian language.

The principales (members of the principalía) traced their origin to the pre‑colonial maginoo ruling class of established kingdoms, rajahnates, confederacies, and principalities,[13]: 19  as well as the lordships of the smaller, ancient social units called barangays[14]: 223 [i] in the Visayas, Luzon, and Mindanao.

[1]: 326 [19]: 294 Principales also provided assistance to parishes by helping in the construction of church buildings, and in the pastoral and religious activities of the clergy who, being usually among the few Spaniards in most colonial towns, had success in earning the goodwill of the natives.

[21]: 726–727;735 With the end of Spanish sovereignty over the Philippines after the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the introduction of a democratic, republican system during the American colonial period, the principalía and their descendants lost legal authority and social privileges.

[q][r] The barangays in some coastal places in Panay,[s][24] Manila, Cebu, Jolo, and Butuan, with cosmopolitan cultures and trade relations with other countries in Asia, were already established principalities (kinadatuan) before the coming of the Spaniards.

[15]: Chapter VIII  The descendants of such chiefs, and their relatives, even though they did not inherit the lordship, were held in the same respect and consideration, and were all regarded as nobles and as persons exempt from the services rendered by the others, or the plebeians (timawas).

[25]: 127–147 In more developed barangays in Visayas, e.g., Panay, Bohol and Cebu (which were never conquered by Spain but were incorporated into the Spanish sphere of influence as vassals by means of pacts, peace treaties, and reciprocal alliances),[15]: 33 [25]: 4 [w] the datu class was at the top of a divinely sanctioned and stable social order in a territorial jurisdiction called in the local languages as 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, which is also called tumao (members of the Visayan datu class), were compared by the Boxer Codex to the titled lords (señores de titulo) in Spain.

[25]: 102, 112–118 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.

As such, the datus who ruled these principalities (such as Butuan, Cebu, Panay, Mindoro and Manila) also shared the many customs of royalties and nobles in southeast Asian territories (with Hindu and Buddhist cultures), especially in the way they used to dress and adorn themselves with gold and silk.

It was these Spanish conquerors, using European terminology, who correlated the identity of classes of the pre-Hispanic elites, along with the royalty or with the nobility of Europe at the time according to appropriate categories, e.g., emperor, king, etc.

In the Lexicon of Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás[31] and Diego González Holguín as well as in the work of Ludovico Bertonio, several entries included were devoted to identify the pre-Hispanic society, comparing their old titles to those of their counterpart in the Iberian peninsula.

A festive banquet would be offered in the municipal or city hall where he would occupy a seat, adorned by the coat of arms of Spain and with fanciful designs, if his social footing was of a respectable antiquity.

[10]: 146  Attentive to these existing systems of government without stripping these ancient sovereigns of their legitimate rights, Legazpi demanded from these local rulers vassalage to the Spanish Crown.

[ac] To implement a system of indirect rule in the Philippines, King Philip II ordered, through this law of June 11, 1594, that the honors and privileges of governing, which were previously enjoyed by the local royalty and nobility in formerly sovereign principalities who later accepted the Catholic faith and became subject to him,[g] should be retained and protected.

[34]: 32–33 The system of indirect government helped in the pacification of the rural areas, and institutionalized the rule and role of an upper class, referred to as the "principalía" or the "principales", until the fall of the Spanish regime in the Philippines in 1898.

However, there were cases when succession in leadership was also done through election of new leaders (cabezas de barangay), especially in provinces near the Manila where the ancient ruling families lost their prestige and role.

In distant territories, where the central authority had less control and where order could be maintained without using coercive measures, hereditary succession was still enforced, until Spain lost the archipelago to the Americans.

[37] The increase of population in the archipelago, as well as the growing presence of Chinese and mestizos also brought about social changes that necessitated the creation of new members of the principalía for these sectors of Filipino colonial society.

[af][g] In this regard, pertinent laws were promulgated, such as the above-mentioned royal decree issued on December 20, 1863 (signed in the name of Queen Isabella II by the minister of the colonies, José de la Concha), which indicate certain conditions for promotion to the principalía class, among others, the capacity to speak the Castilian language.

It is deemed that all preeminence and honors, customarily conferred on the Hijosdalgos of Castile, are to be attributed to the first and to their descendants, both ecclesiastical and secular; and that they can participate in any communities which, by their statutes require nobility; for it is established that these, in their heathenism, were nobles to whom their subordinates acknowledged vassalage and to whom tributes were paid.

It can be seen very clearly and irrefutably that, during the colonial period, indigenous chiefs were equated with the Spanish hidalgos, and the most resounding proof of the application of this comparison is the General Military Archive in Segovia, where the qualifications of "nobility" (found in the Service Records) are attributed to those Filipinos who were admitted to the Spanish military academies and whose ancestors were caciques, encomenderos, notable Tagalogs, chieftains, governors or those who held positions in the municipal administration or government in all different regions of the large islands of the archipelago, or of the many small islands of which it is composed.

The archives of the academia and its royal stamp recognized the appointments of hundreds of natives of the Philippines who, by virtue of their social position, occupied posts in the administration of the territories and were classified as "nobles".

Principalía families in provinces were mostly hacienderos, who had the means and manpower to maintain and decorate carrozas or floats of sacred images, which are often processed during various religious occasions, most importantly the town fiesta and Holy Week.

The prestige associated with being camareros influenced the contemporary trend among well-to-do Filipino Catholic families to sponsor carrozas for processions organized during various religious festivities in the country.

In a traditionally conservative Catholic environment with Christian mores and norms strictly imposed under the tutelage and prying eyes of Spanish friars, marriage to a divorcée or secondhand spouse (locally referred to as "tirá ng ibá", literally "others' leftovers") was scornfully disdained by Filipino aristocrats.

These were severely ostracized in the conservative colonial society and were pejoratively called an "anák sa labás", i.e., "child from outside" (viz., outside marriage), a stigma that still remains part of the contemporary social mores.

This situation was exposed by the writer and leader of the Propaganda Movement, José Rizal, in his two novels: Noli Me Tángere, and El Filibusterismo (dedicated to the three Filipino Catholic priests, who were executed on February 17, 1872, by Spanish colonial authorities, on charges of subversion arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny).

Other independent polities, which were not vassals to other states, e.g., the Confederation of Madja-as and the Rajahnate of Cebu, were de facto protectorates/suzerainties having had alliances with the Spanish Crown before the kingdom took total control of most parts of the archipelago.

Only the right of gobernadorcillos to appoint alguacils and "cuadrilleros" (police patrol or assistance) seem to point out to some kind of vestige of this pre-colonial sign of the datu's coercive power and responsibility to defend his domain.