
Philippine Standard Time (PST or PhST; fil, 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
Offset or Off-Set may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* "Off-Set", a song by T.I. and Young Thug from the '' Furious 7: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack''
* ''Offset'' (EP), a 2018 EP by singer Kim Chung-ha
* ''Offset'' (film), a 200 ...
of
UTC+08:00, but has used
daylight saving time
Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typical ...
for brief periods in the 20th century.
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
(PAGASA). The Philippines shares the same time zone with
China,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
,
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
,
Malaysia,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
,
Western Australia,
Brunei,
Irkutsk
Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...
,
Central Indonesia, and
most of Mongolia.
History
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.
From March 16, 1521, to December 30, 1844, the Philippines had the same date as
Mexico
Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
, 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
The International Date Line (IDL) is an internationally accepted demarcation on the surface of Earth, running between the South and North Poles and serving as the boundary between one calendar day and the next. It passes through the Pacific O ...
moved from going west of the Philippines to go on the east side of the country.
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
Use of daylight saving time
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
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
in 1978, and
Corazon Aquino in 1990.
''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 Department of Science and Technology may refer to:
*Department of Science and Technology (Australia), an Australian Government department between November 1980 and December 1984
* Department of Science and Technology (India)
* Department of Science ...
proposed to synchronise time nationwide in an effort to discourage tardiness.
PAGASA
Pagasa may refer to:
* ''Pagasa'' (genus), an insect genus in the family Nabidae
*PAGASA, an acronym for the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration
*"May Pagasa", a pen-name of José Rizal
*Pagasa, alternate s ...
installed a
rubidium
Rubidium is the chemical element with the symbol Rb and atomic number 37. It is a very soft, whitish-grey solid in the alkali metal group, similar to potassium and caesium. Rubidium is the first alkali metal in the group to have a density higher ...
atomic clock
An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions betw ...
, 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.
On May 15, 2013, President
Benigno Aquino III
Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...
signed Republic Act No. 10535, better known as "The Philippine Standard Time (PST) Act" as the latest step of implementing the ''Juan Time''.
Since June 1, 2013, all government offices and media networks are required to synchronise their timepieces with PAGASA's rubidium atomic clock.
Are you on Philippine Standard Time? , ABS-CBN News
/ref> 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
The tz database is a collaborative compilation of information about the world's time zones, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems. Paul Eggert is its current editor and maintainer, with the organizational back ...
contains one zone for the Philippines in the file zone.tab
This is a list of time zones from release of the tz database.
Legend Type
* Canonical - The primary, preferred zone name.
* Link - An alternative name (alias) which links to a canonical zone.
* Link - A standard Link (as above). The dagger symb ...
, named Asia/Manila
Date and time format
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
External links
Official time in the Philippines
Time zone in Manila, Philippines
{{Asia topic, Time in
Standard Time
Time in Southeast Asia