Maginoo

The Tagalog maginoo, the Kapampangan ginu, and the Visayan tumao were the nobility social class among various cultures of the pre-colonial Philippines.

The title Panginoon was reserved for particularly powerful maginoo who ruled over a large number of dependents and slaves, owned extensive property, and whose lineage was impeccable.

Lower-status maginoo who gained prominence by newly acquired wealth were scornfully known as maygintawo (literally "person with a lot of gold"; nouveau riche).

[1] The Tagalog datu were maginoo who ruled over a community (a dulohan or barangay, literally "corner" and "balangay boat" respectively) or had a large enough following.

They constituted a council (lipon, lupon, or pulong) and answered to a sovereign ruler, referred to as the lakan (or the Sanskrit title raja, "king").

The tumao consisted of blood relatives of the datu (community leader) untainted by slavery, servitude, or witchcraft.

Both tumao and timawa were obligated to serve as the military forces of the datu in times of war, at their own expense.

[1] The immediate royal family of the Visayan datu were distinguished from the rest of the tumao as the kadatoan, which was both a political office and a social class.

[1] The princesses were known as binokot or binukot (literally "the veiled ones" or "the wrapped ones"), due to the fact that they were usually transported by slaves in covered palanquins.

They had control of trade through honos (fee for anchoring a ship in the community harbor), bihit (tariffs), and lopig (discounts on local purchases).

They also had the power to restrict access to communal property through decrees (balwang) and their crops and animals were distributed among his subjects to care for in a practice known as takay.

Their authority usually stems from favorable trade positions, military prowess, lineage, and wealth (bahandi) rather than royal rule.

[6] During the time of former president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, the term "maharlika" was mistakenly attributed to mean "royalty".

As part of his drive at promoting the Bagong Lipunan (New Society), Marcos sponsored the research into pre-Hispanic culture of the Philippines.

[7] Marcos also used Maharlika as his personal nom de guerre, depicting himself as the most bemedalled anti-Japanese Filipino guerrilla soldier during World War II.

During the martial law period in the Philippines, Marcos attempted to produce a film entitled Maharlika to present his "war exploits".