Person in charge (of a family); male relatives on paternal side.
A person’s father, grandparents on father’s side or male relatives on father’s side. If a problem arises in a family concerning the children and the father has died already, the grandfather (or grandmother) on the father’s side will be called on to give advice. If both have died or the grandmother is not able to handle the problem, the male relatives on father’s side will step in. Any of these are called galabat.
It occurs also with the prefix mag- in a nominal construction. The meaning then is: ‘the one who acts as head of the family’.
Who is the one in charge?
There is a girl who is being proposed to but her own galabat doesn’t want to, that means her father.