Philippine Standard Time

Philippine Standard Time (PST or PhST;^[1][2] Filipino: Pamantayang Oras ng Pilipinas), also known as Philippine Time (PHT), is the official name for the time zone used in the Philippines. The country only uses one time zone, at an offset of UTC+08:00, but has used daylight saving time for brief periods in the 20th century.

Countries that use UTC+08:00 are in yellow.

Geographic details

Geographically, the Philippines lies within 116°53′^{[clarification needed]} and 126°34′^{[clarification needed]} east of the Prime Meridian,^[3] and is physically located within the UTC+08:00 time zone. Philippine Standard Time is maintained by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). The Philippines shares the same time zone with China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Western Australia, Brunei, Irkutsk, Central Indonesia, and most of Mongolia.

History

 

Erroneous International Date Line from the 1888 Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, running between the Spanish Philippine Islands and British Hong Kong. The Philippine Islands along with the rest of New Spain are shown on the eastern side of the IDL, even though they were moved to the western side in 1845.

Philippine Standard Time was instituted through Batas Pambansa Blg. 8 (that defined the metric system), approved on December 2, 1978, and implemented on January 1, 1983. The Philippines is one of the few countries to officially and almost exclusively use the 12-hour clock in non-military situations.^{[citation needed][dubious ]}

From March 16, 1521, to December 30, 1844, the Philippines had the same date as Mexico, because it had been a Spanish colony supplied and controlled via Mexico until Mexico's independence on September 27, 1821. On August 16, 1844, the Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria decreed that Tuesday, December 31, 1844, will be removed on the Philippine calendar. Monday, December 30, 1844, was immediately followed by Wednesday, January 1, 1845, which added 1 day or 24 hours to the local time. This meant that International Date Line moved from going west of the Philippines to go on the east side of the country.^[4] At the time, local mean time was used to set clocks, meaning that every place used its own local time based on its longitude, because the time was measured by locally observing the sun.

Time in the Philippines

Period in use	Time offset from GMT	Name of time
March 16, 1521 – December 30, 1844	UTC−15:56 (in Manila)	local mean time
	UTC−16:12:16 (in Balabac, the westernmost island)
	UTC−15:33:35 (in Davao Oriental, the easternmost area)
December 31, 1844	The day that never occurred as ordered by the Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria to add 24 hours to the local mean time.^[5]	Time Zone change
January 1, 1845 – May 10, 1899	UTC+08:04 (in Manila)	local mean time
	UTC+07:47:44 (in Balabac, the westernmost island)
	UTC+08:26:25 (in Davao Oriental, the easternmost area)
May 11, 1899 – October 31, 1936	UTC+08:00	Philippine Standard Time
November 1, 1936 – January 31, 1937	UTC+09:00	Philippine Daylight Time
February 1, 1937 – April 30, 1942	UTC+08:00	Philippine Standard Time
May 1, 1942 – October 31, 1944	UTC+09:00	Tokyo Standard Time
November 1, 1944 – April 11, 1954	UTC+08:00	Philippine Standard Time
April 12, 1954 – June 30, 1954	UTC+09:00	Philippine Daylight Time
July 1, 1954 – March 21, 1978	UTC+08:00	Philippine Standard Time
March 22, 1978 – September 20, 1978	UTC+09:00	Philippine Daylight Time
September 21, 1978 – May 20, 1990	UTC+08:00	Philippine Standard Time
May 21, 1990 – July 28, 1990	UTC+09:00	Philippine Daylight Time
July 29, 1990 – present	UTC+08:00	Philippine Standard Time

Use of daylight saving time

Main article: Daylight saving time in the Philippines

Since 1990, the Philippines has not observed daylight saving time, although it was in use for short periods during the presidency of Manuel L. Quezon in 1936–1937, Ramon Magsaysay in 1954, Ferdinand Marcos in 1978, and Corazon Aquino in 1990.^[6]

Juan Time

Television and radio stations in the Philippines display the time, but varied from a few seconds to minutes. In September 2011, the Department of Science and Technology proposed to synchronise time nationwide in an effort to discourage tardiness. PAGASA installed a rubidium atomic clock, a GPS receiver, a time interval counter, distribution amplifier and a computer to help calculate the time difference with every satellite within its antenna's field of view.^[7][8]

On May 15, 2013, President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act No. 10535, better known as "The Philippine Standard Time (PST) Act" as the latest step of implementing the Juan Time.^[9] Since June 1, 2013, all government offices and media networks are required to synchronise their timepieces with PAGASA's rubidium atomic clock.^[10][11] In addition, the first week of January will be regularly observed as the National Time Consciousness Week.

IANA time zone database

The IANA time zone database contains one zone for the Philippines in the file zone.tab, named Asia/Manila

Date and time format

Main article: Date and time notation in the Philippines

Date

Standard: March 22, 2022

Formal (Public Documents): the 22nd day of March 2022 or 22 March 2022

Filipino: ika-22 ng Marso, 2022 or 22 Marso 2022

Passport: 22 03 2022

Time

Standard: 12-hour clock

Military/Scouting: US Military Time

Public Transport and Marathon events: 24-hour clock

Common Spoken Language

Tagalized Spanish terminology (original Spanish spelling in parentheses; AM radio stations and everyday conversation)

8:41 – Alas otso kuwarenta y uno (A las ocho cuarenta y uno)

5:30 – Alas singko y medya (A las cinco y media)

3:00 – Alas tres (A las tres; en punto, literally meaning "on the dot", may be added to signify "o'Clock".)

English (Business, Legal and others)

8:41 PM – Eight forty-one PM

5:30 AM – Five Thirty AM

3:00 PM – Three O'Clock or Three PM

12:00 PM – Twelve Midday or Twelve Noon – Twelve PM is seldom used as it might be confused with 12 Midnight

12:00 AM – Twelve Midnight – Twelve AM is seldom used as it might be confused with 12 Noon

Tagalog and Filipino

Starts with Spanish-derived (original spelling in parentheses) and ends with Tagalog – Umaga starts at 5:00 AM and ends 11:59 AM. Tanghalì is noon. Hapon starts at 1:00 PM and ends 5:59 PM. Gabí starts at 6:00 PM and ends 12:00 AM which is Hatinggabi. Madalíng Araw starts at 12:01 AM and ends 4:59 AM. Except in very formal situations, Filipinos rarely use the vernacular numbers in telling time.

8:41 P.M. – Alas otso kuwarenta y uno (A las ocho cuarenta y uno) ng gabí or Apatnapú't-isá(ng minuto) makalipas ng ikawaló ng gabí or (ika)waló at apatnapú't-isá (na) ng gabi

5:30 A.M. – Alas singko y medya (A las cinco y media) ng umaga or Tatlumpû(ng minuto) makalipas ng ikalimá ng umaga or Kalahati makalipas ng ikalimá ng umaga or (ika)limá at kalaháti ng umaga or (ika)limá at tatlumpû(ng minuto) (na) ng umaga

3:00 P.M. – Alas tres (A las tres) ng hapon o Ikatló ng hapon

12:00 P.M. – Alas dose (A las doce) ng tanghalì o Ikalabíndalawá ng tanghalì

12:00 A.M. – Alas dose (A las doce) ng hatinggabi o Ikalabíndalawá ng hatinggabí

2:00 A.M. – Alas dos ng madalíng araw (A las dos) o Ikalawá ng madalíng araw

References

1. Medina, Marielle (January 4, 2017). "National Time Consciousness Week". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Inquirer Research. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
2. "DOST urges Pinoys to follow PH Standard Time". Philippine News Agency. Philippine Canadian Inquirer. January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
3. . Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
4. R. H. van Gent. "A History of the International Date Line". Webspace.science.uu.nl. Retrieved December 30, 2011.
5. "Missing date in Philippines history". wordpress.com. August 27, 2007. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
6. "Daylight saving time dates for Manila, Philippines between 2000 and 2009". timeanddate.com.
7. Juan Time: Filipino time redefined | ABS-CBN News
8. "Clocks and countdowns set for 'Juan Time'". Philippine Daily Inquirer. December 31, 2011. from the original on January 6, 2018.
9. "Republic Act No. 10535". Official Gazette. Government of the Philippines. May 15, 2013.
10. "PHL Standard Time to counter 'Filipino time' starting June 1". GMA News.
11. Are you on Philippine Standard Time? | ABS-CBN News

External links

• Official time in the Philippines
• World Time Zone Abbreviations, Description and UTC Offset
• Time zone in Manila, Philippines