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The datu was a chieftain who led a barangay, which was an early Filipino settlement consisting of extended kinship groups. These groups typically comprised no more than a few hundred individuals and were the largest stable economic and political units. The datu and their families formed the nobility within the barangay's social structure, which also included freeholders and dependents. This system was present before the arrival of the Spanish, who later adapted the barangay as their basic unit of local administration. The term datu is also used in parts of Malaysia.1234

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