Philippine Standard Time

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

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

:::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".)

:::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

:::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

References

References

1. (May 15, 2013). "Republic Act No. 10535, The Philippine Standard Time (PST) Act of 2013".
2. (January 4, 2017). "National Time Consciousness Week". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
3. Lacanilao, Arianne. (January 5, 2018). "DOST urges Pinoys to follow PH Standard Time". Philippine Canadian Inquirer.
4. "PAGASA".
5. "Republic Act No. 9522".
6. van Gent, R. H.. "A History of the International Date Line". Webspace.science.uu.nl.
7. Tantiangco, Aya. (2017-01-01). "Philippines skipped New Year's Eve and lost a day in 1844". GMA News Online.
8. Pedrasa, Ira. (2011-09-26). "Juan Time: Filipino time redefined". ABS-CBN News.
9. (2011-12-31). "Clocks and countdowns set for 'Juan Time'". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
10. (May 15, 2013). "The Philippine Standard Time (PST) Act of 2013".
11. (2013-05-25). "PHL Standard Time to counter 'Filipino time' starting June 1". GMA News.
12. "Are you on Philippine Standard Time? {{!}} ABS-CBN News".
13. Joel. (27 August 2007). "Missing date in Philippines history: 31 December 1844". Far Outliers.
14. "Daylight saving time 2024 in Philippines". timeanddate.com.