The word Barangay originally referred to the settlement of Malay people, who, according to H. Otley bayer "filtered in fleets of dugouts boats, up from the west coast of Borneo into Luzon via Palawan and Mindoro, and in another ocean pathway through the Celebes Strait to Mindanao and the Visayas." These people, who became the ancestors of the present-day Filipinos, came in groups composed of the head and the immediate members of his family. They traveled by sailboat called "Balang" and founded independent settlements along the coast in the different islands of the archipelago.
According to historians, the Barangay settlement was similar to the districts of old Rome. The head of each of these groups was usually the oldest or the strongest member called Datu or Raja who had in himself the three branches of the government- executive, legislative and judicial. The elders acted as delegates, especially in the judiciary where they had conciliatory or arbitrational functions similar to those of the present-day Lupong Tagapamayapa or Pangkat ng Tagapagkasundo as provided for under the Katarungang Pambarangay Law. In addition, Loarca, a noted historian, says that the Chief, with the advise and consent of the elders, made laws.
The political government then, according to Father San Antonio, "was not monarchial, for they did not have an absolute king, or democratic, for those who governed a state or village were not many; but it was an aristocratic one, for there were many magnates among whom the entire government was divided". Succession to the Chief's position in the Barangay was hereditary but if there were no qualified heir, any man could rise to that rank by virtue of wisdom, physical power or wealth. Based on Barangay Administrative Handbook by Jardiniano.
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