in disputes with other communities and warfare through the Agama and Maratabat laws. The Lumad societies of Mindanao At the beginning of the 20th century, the Lumad peoples controlled an area that now covers 17 of Mindanao's 24 provinces – but by the 1980 census, they constituted less than 6% of the population of Mindanao and Sulu. Heavy migration to Mindanao of Visayans, who have been settling in the Island for centuries, spurred by government-sponsored resettlement programmes, turned the Lumads into minorities. The Bukidnon province population grew from 63,470 in 1948 to 194,368 in 1960 and 414,762 in 1970, with the proportion of indigenous Bukidnons falling from 64% to 33% to 14%. There are 18 Lumad ethnolinguistic groups: Ata people, Bagobo, Banwaon, B'laan, Bukidnon, Dibabawon, Higaonon, Mamanwa, Mandaya, Manguwangan, Manobo, Mansaka, Subanon, Tagakaolo, Tasaday, Tboli, Teduray and Ubo. Lumad datus have involved themselves in protecting their homeland forests from illegal loggers during the past decades. Some have joined the New People's Army (NPA), a communist rebel group in the country, for the cause of their people. Others have resisted joining the Moro and Communist separatist movements. A datu is still basic to the smooth functioning of Lumad and Moro societies today. They have continued to act as the community leaders in their respective tribes among a variety of Indigenous peoples in Mindanao. Moros, Lumads and Visayans now share with new settlers a homeland in Mindanao. Datu in pre-colonial principalities in the Visayas In more affluent and powerful territorial jurisdictions and principalities in the Visayas, e.g., PanayCf. William Henry Scott, Cracks in the Parchment Curtain, Quezon City: 1998, pp. 127–147. Cebu and LeyteLeyte and Cebu, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Pasig, Laguna, and Cagayan River were flourishing trading centers. Some of these barangays had large populations. In Panay, some barangays had 20,000 inhabitants; in Leyte (Baybay), 15,000 inhabitants; in Cebu, 3,500 residents; in Vitis (Pampanga), 7,000 inhabitants; Pangsinan, 4,000 residents. There were smaller barangays with fewer people. But these were generally inland communities; or if they were coastal, they were not located in areas good for business pursuits. Cf. F. Landa Jocano, Filipino Prehistory: Rediscovering Precolonial Heritage (1998), pp. 157–158, 164(which were never conquered by Spain but were accomplished as vassals using pacts, peace treaties, and reciprocal alliances), the "datu" class was at the top of a divinely sanctioned and stable social order in a sakop or kinadatuan (kadatuan in ancient Malay; kedaton in