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 a single time zone, at an offset of UTC+08:00, but has used daylight saving time for brief periods in the 20th century until July 28, 1990.

Philippine Standard Time
Time zone
The Manila City Hall Clock Tower, photo taken in 2000. The Clock tower of Manila City Hall is the icon for synchronizing the time in the whole Philippine archipelago. The purposes of these Philippine "towering timepieces" are to tell the time and to serve as landmarks.
UTC offset
PHT	UTC+08:00
Current time
09:51, 20 December 2023 PHT [refresh]
Observance of DST
DST is not observed in this time zone.

Geographic details

 

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

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 (Russia), 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. It also placed Bonin Islands and Fiji to the east those are actually to the west of the line.

For 323 years, 9 months, and 4 days which lasted from Saturday March 16, 1521 (Julian Calendar), until December 30, 1844 (Gregorian Calendar), 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 from 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][5] At the time, the 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.

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 ]}

In September 2011, the Department of Science and Technology proposed to synchronize time nationwide in an effort to discourage tardiness and non-standard time displayed in television and radio stations. PAGASA installed a rubidium atomic clock, a GPS receiver, a time interval counter, a distribution amplifier and a computer to help calculate the time difference with every satellite within its antenna's field of view.^[6][7]

In a bid to discourage the Filipino culture of tardiness, on May 15, 2013, President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act No. 10535 setting the Philippine Standard Time,^[8] requiring all government offices and media networks to synchronise their timepieces with PAGASA's rubidium atomic clock.^[9][10]

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.^[11]	Time Zone change^[note 1]
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^[note 2]
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.^[12]

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: August 18, 2023 (month day, year or mm/dd/yyyy)

Formal (Public Documents): the 18th day of August, 2023 or 18 August 2023 (day month year)

Filipino: ika-18 ng Agosto, 2023 or 18 Agosto 2023 (dd-mm-yyyy)

Passport: 18 08 2023 (dd mm yyyy)

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

Notes

1. The change also applied to Caroline Islands, Guam, Marianas Islands, Marshall Islands and Palau for being part of the Captaincy General of the Philippines during that time.
2. During World War II, the Philippines became under control of Imperial Japan following the "Fall of Manila" on January 2, 1942, caused by the invasion of the Imperial Japanese Army. However, Japan was defeated by the United States Navy at the Battle of Leyte Gulf and then liberate Visayas on October 26, 1944. After few days, the clocks set back to Philippine Standard Time.

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. "Philippines skipped New Year's Eve and lost a day in 1844". gmanetwork.com. GMA News Online. January 1, 2017. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
6. Juan Time: Filipino time redefined | ABS-CBN News
7. "Clocks and countdowns set for 'Juan Time'". Philippine Daily Inquirer. December 31, 2011. from the original on January 6, 2018.
8. Republic Act No. 10535 (May 15, 2013). . Archived from the original on July 3, 2017. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
9. "PHL Standard Time to counter 'Filipino time' starting June 1". GMA News.
10. Are you on Philippine Standard Time? | ABS-CBN News
11. "Missing date in Philippines history: 31 December 1844". wordpress.com. Far Outliers. August 27, 2007. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
12. "Daylight saving time dates for Manila, Philippines between 2000 and 2009". timeanddate.com.

External links

• Philippine Standard Time
• Official time in the Philippines (widget)
• World Time Zone Abbreviations, Description and UTC Offset
• Time in the Philippines Now
• Time zone in the Philippines