Philippine Standard Time (PST or PhST; ), also known as Philippine Time (PHT), is the official name for the

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, Commerce, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between Country, countries and their Administrative division, subdivisions instead of ...

used in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. The country only uses a single time zone, at an offset of UTC+08:00, but has used

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (Daylight saving time in the United States, United States and Daylight saving time in Canada, Canada), or summer time (British Summer Time, United Kingdom, ...

for brief periods in the 20th century until July 28, 1990.

Geographic details

Geographically, the Philippines lies and 126°34′ east of the

Prime Meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrarily chosen meridian (geography), meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. On a spheroid, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th 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 The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (, abbreviated as PAGASA , which means "hope" as in the Tagalog word ''pag-asa'') is the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) agency of the P ...

(PAGASA). The Philippines shares the same time zone with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

(

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

), 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 Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. This was because it was a Spanish colony supplied and controlled via Mexico through

Manila-Acapulco Galleon The Manila galleon (; ) refers to the Spanish trading ships that linked the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies to Mexico (New Spain), across the Pacific Ocean. The ships made one or two round-trip voyages per year between the ports of Mani ...

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 The International Date Line (IDL) is the line extending between the South and North Poles that is the boundary between one calendar day and the next. It passes through the Pacific Ocean, roughly following the 180.0° line of longitude and de ...

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 Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. 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 This article contains a partial list of Philippine laws. Sources of Philippine laws ;Notes : *Customs may be considered as supplementary source of law, however, customs which are contrary to law, public order or public policy shall not ...

Blg. 8 (that defined the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that standardization, standardizes a set of base units and a nomenclature for describing relatively large and small quantities via decimal-based multiplicative unit prefixes. Though the rules gover ...

), 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 The 12-hour clock is a time convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods: a.m. (from Latin , translating to "before midday") and p.m. (from Latin , translating to "after midday"). Each period consists of 12&nb ...

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 The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (, abbreviated as PAGASA , which means "hope" as in the Tagalog language, Tagalog word ''pag-asa'') is the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS ...

installed a

rubidium Rubidium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), 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 ...

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 betwee ...

, 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 Benigno Simeon Aquino III (; born 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 ...

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

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 Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina (, , , ; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino people, Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier, and politician who was president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1 ...

in 1936–1937,

Ramon Magsaysay Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr. (August 31, 1907 – March 17, 1957) was a Filipino statesman who served as the seventh President of the Philippines, from December 30, 1953, until his death in an 1957 Cebu Douglas C-47 crash, aircraft disast ...

in 1954,

Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

in 1978, and

Corazon Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...

in 1990.

IANA time zone database

The

IANA time zone database The tz database is a collaborative compilation of information about the world's time zones and rules for observing daylight saving time, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems. Paul Eggert has been its editor an ...

contains one zone for the Philippines in the file zone.tab, named Asia/Manila

Date and time format

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: 18 , 2023 or 18 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 The modern 24-hour clock is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) passed since midnight, from to , with as an option to indicate ...

: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

References

External links

Philippine Standard Time

Official time in the Philippines
(widget)

Time in the Philippines Now

Time zone in the Philippines
{{Asia topic, Time in Standard Time Time in Southeast Asia