The following is a listing of the sovereigns of the kingdoms in the Philippine archipelago before their dominions fell to either the Kingdom of the Spains and the Indies (mostly in the 16th or 17th century) or the United States of America (in the 20th century), and of their non-sovereign descendants that kept honorary titles.
Mentions of the King of Luzon by the Spanish king Charles V in a decree and correspondences and of the King of Cebu by Hernan Cortes, Spanish governor of New Spain, in his letter to him are found in Spanish records; these occurred in the first half of 16th century.
After the fall of particular Philippine dominions to the Kingdom of the Spains and the Indies which started in 1565, due to the much earlier Spanish royal authorization given to the royal audience and chancery of New Spain on 26 February 1538 to prohibit the title of "lord" from being adopted by the nobles of acquired overseas dominions, since, according to its author the Spanish queen Isabella, "it is convenient for our service and royal preeminence that they are not called [lords]" but principals, the particular Philippine nobles who swore allegiance to Spain became part of the "principalia" or Philippine principality and came to be considered as "principal Indians". This same authorization formed part of the Spanish Laws of the Indies as Law 5 of Title 7 of Book 6. The ranks in nobility were also reduced to practically the lowest one based on the truly common designation of "datu" equating it fully to being a "cabeza de barangay" or head of a barangay or town district, with an opportunity for a noble to be elected as "gobernadorcillo" or town governor by the same nobles. Nonetheless, they were given privileges comparable to Spanish nobility such as exemption from taxation, authority of governance, and inheritance of title and privileges; these had also been part of their previous powers albeit reduced. Upon converting to Christianity, these same nobles adopted the initially fairly exclusive titles of "don" and "doña". The occurrence of a Philippine noble becoming a "principal" was only mutually recognized by both the Spanish king and that noble after the noble swore allegiance to the Spanish king. In insular Spanish records, the principalia was also sometimes referred to as nobility, and principals also as nobles.
The Kingdom of Luzon was described as one of the more powerful and wealthier kingdoms in the archipelago. It was noted for its commerce, literacy, diplomacy, navy, and use of artillery. Its influence ranged at least from Mindoro to Kapampangan lordships, with possibilities of greater extent suggested by the name of the kingdom. The kingdom and its subjects began to fall under the Kingdom of the Spains and the Indies, starting in 1570, just as the Kingdom of Luzon was starting to adopt Islam.
The Kingdom of Cebu was known for its military achievements and for having a large army. The male citizens of the kingdom were tattooed as marks of honour. Its dominion became a protectorate of the Kingdom of the Spains and the Indies in 1565 but fell to the said kingdom after 1570.
Mactan is known to have had several rulers at the same time, unlike most principalities in the neighbouring Cebu. Mactan is assumed to have had its own sovereign.
The dominion of the Sultanate of Maguindanao gradually fell to the United States of America in the 1900s.
In English toponymy, borrowed from Spanish toponymy, Sulu is the term that refers to the Sultanate of the Tausugs, with this term being an approximation (perhaps Spanish) of the root term "Sulug" in Tausug which is also pronounced as "Suluk" in Malay. Both these terms refer to the Tausug people, the first being an endonym and the second an exonym, besides being the name of the sultanate itself. Jolo is another term that serves this approximation (initially pronounced as /Sho-lo/ in Spanish).
The primary language of the Sultanate of Sulu is Tausug, with Malay and Arabic as secondary languages. The dominion of the sultanate stretched from Sulu in what is now the Philippines to Sabah in what is now Malaysia. From its dominion, the side on the American reckoning of the Philippine islands gradually fell to the United States of America within the first half of the 20th century. The Sabah territory was continually leased by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the Sultan of Sulu, and was then transferred by that kingdom to Malaysia, which continued to pay for the lease.
Part of the legacy of this sultanate is the presence of around 1,200,000 Tausugs in the Philippines and around 700,000 Tausugs in Malaysia at the present time. The royal family of the Sultanate of Sulu still maintains its lineage well-documented.
Some aristocratic descendants are either officially granted leadership of particular communities by the Republic of the Philippines or unofficially still assume this role.
Muslim
Some Muslim aristocratic descendants who kept ancestral lordly titles have attempted to participate in the republican government and have served as either appointed or democratically elected public officials while they continued to assume roles as community leaders. There are also sometimes contending claimants to the titles. For aristocratic descendants, the following are several examples:
Polytheistic ethnicities
The following are present-day elders in ancestral domains as provided in the 1997 Act No. 8371 of the Republic of the Philippines "to recognise, protect, and promote the rights of the indigenous cultural communities".
These figures are based on Pedro Monteclaro's "Maragtas", a history of Panay published in 1907.