Barangay captain in the context of "Cabeza de barangay"

A barangay hall is the seat of government for a barangay, the lowest elected administrative division of the Philippines, below that of a city or municipality. It serves as the office of the barangay captain and meeting place for the Sangguniang Barangay. These officers' names, pictures and responsibilities are usually displayed in the hall. The hall can be considered the counterpart to its municipality's municipal hall.

The barangay hall also serves as a local community center, often providing space for both permanent and temporary services and events. The barangay's day care center and office space for the tanods and the barangay health workers are often located there. Medical missions, religious services, fiestas, and sports contests are often held near or next to the barangay hall.

The Sangguniang Barangay, known in English as the Barangay Council is the local government of a barangay, the smallest administrative division in the Philippines. Each of the 42,004 barangays in the country has its respective Sangguniang Barangay. The term is coined from the Tagalog words sanggunian (lit. 'advisory') and barangay.

Each Sangguniang Barangay is headed by a barangay chairperson as the chief executive, who is elected at-large by first-past-the-post voting. Meanwhile, the legislative body is composed of seven regular members all titled barangay kagawad (barangay councilor) who are elected at-large by multi-member plurality voting, in which voters may vote for as many candidates as the number of council seats. The chairperson of the Sangguniang Kabataan (barangay’s youth council) who is elected by voters aged 15 to 30 years old, is the ex officio eighth member. Some barangays with a population of indigenous people have an Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative (IPMR) as the ex officio ninth member albeit elected separately.

A barangay tanod, also known as a barangay police officer – and sometimes as BPSO (which can stand for barangay public safety officer, barangay peacekeeping and security officer, or barangay police safety officer) – is the lowest level of law enforcement officer in the Philippines. They primarily serve as watchmen for a barangay but also perform a variety of functions, supervised by the barangay captain. Tanods are:

They may be unarmed or armed with a baton or bolo knife (a type of machete).