Gat (title)

The Tagalog maginoo, the Kapampangan ginu, and the Visayan tumao were the nobility social class among various cultures of the pre-colonial Philippines. Among the Visayans, the tumao were further distinguished from the immediate royal families, the kadatoan.

In Visayas, the Visayans utilized a three-class social structure consisting of the oripun (commoners, serfs, and slaves), the timawa (warrior nobility), and at the top, the tumao (nobility). The tumao consisted of blood relatives of the datu (community leader) untainted by slavery, servitude, or witchcraft. They were usually descendants of the children of a datu and secondary wives known as sandil. Various tumao supporters of the datu are collectively referred to as sandig sa datu ("beside the datu"). The tumao were also usually employed in the court of the datu in various positions (though these may sometimes be filled with timawa as well). The chief minister or privy counselor of the datu was known as the atubang sa datu (literally "facing the datu"). The steward who collected and recorded tributes and taxes and dispensed them among the household and dependents of the datu was known as the paragahin. The paragahin was also responsible for organizing public feasts and communal work. The bilanggo was the one responsible for maintaining law and order and whose own house served as the community jail (bilanggowan). Both tumao and timawa were obligated to serve as the military forces of the datu in times of war, at their own expense.

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. The purity of the lineage of the kadatoan was extremely important in claiming the right to rule, thus the kadatoan usually only married members of other royal families. The sons and daughters of the datu by his first wife were zealously guarded from the rest of the community. The princesses were known as binokot (literally "the veiled ones" or "the wrapped ones"), due to the fact that they were usually transported by slaves in covered palanquins. Women of the kadatoan class were powerful and revered. The first wife of the datu and the binokot could command the same number of slaves and dependents.

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