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Philippine Standard Time
Time zone used in the Philippines (UTC+08:00)
Time zone used in the Philippines (UTC+08:00)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| image | ' THE ICON OF MANILA ' - City Hall Tower of Manila.jpg |
| caption | The Clock tower of Manila City Hall is the icon for synchronizing the time in the whole Philippine archipelago, before an atomic clock was introduced in the country in 2012. The purposes of these Philippine "towering timepieces" are to tell the time and to serve as landmarks. |
| dst use | none |
| initials | PHT |
| offset | +08:00 |
Philippine Standard Time (PST or PhST; ), 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 used daylight saving time for brief periods in November 1, 1936 until September 20, 1978.
Geographic details
Geographically, the Philippines lies and 126°34′ east of the Prime Meridian, 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
For 323 years, 9 months, and 4 days, which lasted from Saturday, March 16, 1521 (Julian Calendar), until Monday, December 30, 1844 (Gregorian Calendar), the Philippines followed the date of the western hemisphere and had the same date as Mexico. This was because it was a Spanish colony supplied and controlled via Mexico through Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade, which lasted up to 250 years from July 2, 1565, until September 14, 1815, few years before Mexico's declaration of independence from Spain on September 27, 1821.
On August 16, 1844, the Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria decreed that Tuesday, December 31, 1844, should 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 change meant that the International Date Line moved from going west of the Philippines to go on the east side of the country, which had to follow the eastern hemisphere to align itself with the rest of Asia.
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.
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.
In September 2011, the Department of Science and Technology proposed to synchronize time nationwide, which was an effort to discourage tardiness and non-standard time displayed on 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.
In order to promote synchronicity with official time, on May 15, 2013, President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act No. 10535 setting the Philippine Standard Time, requiring all government offices and media networks to synchronize their timepieces with PAGASA's rubidium atomic clock.
Time in the Philippines
| Period in use | Time offset from GMT/UTC | Name of time |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, March 16, 1521 (Julian Calendar) – Monday, December 30, 1844 (Gregorian Calendar) | GMT−15:56 (in Manila) | Local mean time |
| GMT−16:12 (in Balabac, the westernmost island) | ||
| GMT−15:34 (in Davao Oriental, the easternmost area) | ||
| The day that never occurred as ordered by the Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria to add 24 hours to the local mean time. | Time zone change | |
| Wednesday, January 1, 1845 – May 10, 1899 | GMT+08:04 (in Manila) | Local mean time |
| GMT+07:48 (in Balabac, the westernmost island) | ||
| GMT+08:26 (in Davao Oriental, the easternmost area) | ||
| May 11, 1899 – October 31, 1936 | GMT+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| November 1, 1936 – January 31, 1937 | GMT+09:00 | Philippine Daylight Saving Time |
| February 1, 1937 – April 30, 1942 | GMT+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| May 1, 1942 – October 31, 1944 | GMT+09:00 | Tokyo Standard Time |
| November 1, 1944 – April 11, 1954 | GMT+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| April 12, 1954 – June 30, 1954 | GMT+09:00 | Philippine Daylight Saving Time |
| July 1, 1954 – March 21, 1978 | GMT/UTC+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| March 22, 1978 – September 20, 1978 | UTC+09:00 | Philippine Daylight Saving Time |
| September 21, 1978 – present | UTC+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
Use of daylight saving time
Main article: Daylight saving time in the Philippines
Since 1979, the Philippines has not observed daylight saving time. It was in use for short periods during the presidency of Manuel L. Quezon in 1936–1937, Ramon Magsaysay in 1954, and Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1978.
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
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