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.
Philippine Standard Time (PST[1][2] or PhST;[3][4]Filipino: Pamantayang Oras ng Pilipinas), also known as Philippine Time (PHT),[citation needed] 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.
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 until Mexico's independence 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. Thus, 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, thereby moving the Philippines from the date of the western hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere.[6][7] 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.[citation needed][dubious –
discuss]
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
rubidiumatomic 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.[8][9]
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,[10] requiring all government offices and media networks to synchronize their timepieces with PAGASA's rubidium atomic clock.[11][12]
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)
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
^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.
^The term UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) begin in use just after the introduction of Unix Time on January 1, 1970. In those days before 1970, the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) was the term being used.
^"Republic Act No. 9522". Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Archived from
the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved February 13, 2022.