 This legal system of racial classification based on patrilineal descent had no parallel anywhere in the Spanish colonies in the Americas.In general, a son born of a "sangley" male and an "indio" or "mestizo de sangley" female was classified as "mestizo de sangley"; all subsequent male descendants were "mestizos de sangley" regardless of whether they married an "india" or a "mestiza de sangley".The social stratification system based on class that continues to this day in the Philippines has its beginnings in the Spanish colonial area with this caste system.