Personalism is an important social value in Manobo society, and this is clearly evident and also shared among the lowland Christian Filipinos. Specifically, friendly relations are materialized during Christian rituals of baptism and marriage when parents of baptized and married children socialize with their neighbor-friends. Roughly the same age group/set as the parents of the baptized and married children, friends--usually non-consanguinous kin and those that they have known intimately in the workplace--are taken in as ritual sponsors.

    Thus, interdependent social relations among the parties concerned are initiated/constructed and maintained in the said ritualized events.  They assume the roles of patrons and clients. Patrons appropriate their status and role as their clients seek their spiritual godparenthood guidance. This comes--of course--with material motivations. Ritual sponsors, the patrons, are addressed ninong/maninoy and ninang/maninay by the baptized and married couples whom the godparents reciprocally call ina-anak. Patrons are sought for by their prospective kumpares and kumares (clients), the parents of the baptized and married children, because sponsors/patrons are perceived to be helpful in the clients’ lives as well as in their children’s in the future, guaranteeing emotional support, job placements, recommendations, source of loans in times of need and crises. In addition, ritual sponsors also find the patron-client arrangement beneficial because their clients give them deference and loyalty.

    Given the personalism that is so pervasive in the Philippines, compadrazgo creates interpersonal networks. Anyone doing a transaction in the Philippines would know how important these connections are in getting things done. With this in mind, patrons can be construed as some kind of a social capital.