Philippine Standard Time

History

Precolonial era

Before the arrival of clocks in the 16th century, early Filipinos kept track of time using environmental cues, the positions of the sun, and the stars. Portions of the day and night were given highly descriptive names. For example, dawn was called bukang-liwayway, midday was katanghalian, dusk was takipsilim, and midnight was hatinggabi. Each region effectively followed its own local solar mean time.

Age of Exploration

When Ferdinand Magellan sailed west around the world from Seville, Kingdom of Castile, Spanish Empire (now Seville, Spain) on August 10, 1519, he and his crew lost a few minutes every day. Because they were travelling in the same direction as the apparent movement of the sun, their days ended later than those of people who remained in Europe, causing them to start their subsequent days later as well. On November 28, 1520, the Magellan–Elcano expedition had crossed the Pacific Ocean from the coast of South America that would much later be associated with the International Date Line (IDL). However, it would be anachronistic to say that the expedition should have adjusted its clocks according to modern time zones or advanced its calendar by one day upon crossing the line. The International Date Line and the standardized system of global time zones did not yet exist in the modern sense. Instead, the apparent discrepancy in their calendar arose from their continuous westward journey around the globe.

After passing through the Strait of Magellan, the expedition continued sailing through largely uncharted waters in an effort to reach the Spice Islands (now Maluku Islands) by this western route. However, when they reached the Philippines on March 16, 1521, they introduced the date of the western hemisphere on the island.

The expedition's experience eventually provided an important early demonstration of the phenomenon later associated with circumnavigation and the International Date Line: travellers moving continuously westward around the Earth can find their recorded calendar date differs by one day from that of people who remained at their starting point. The discrepancy became particularly significant when the surviving members of the expedition returned to Spain on September 6, 1522.

Spanish period

For 323 years, 9 months, and 2 days, which lasted from Saturday, March 16, 1521 (Julian Calendar), until Monday, December 30, 1844 (Gregorian Calendar), the Philippines 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, a few years before Mexico gained independence from Spain on September 27, 1821. After this, the Spanish Crown took direct control of the Philippines and governed directly from Madrid. Additionally, the Philippine trading partners turned to Imperial China (now China), the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia and Malacca, Malaysia) and neighboring countries.

The Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria consulted the Archbishop of Manila, Jose Segui, about fixing the time discrepancy of the Philippines compared to its Asian neighbors, to fix and ease the trade for the economic sustenance of the territory. On August 16, 1844, Claveria decreed that Tuesday, December 31, 1844, should be removed from the Philippine calendar. So 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 the International Date Line moved from going west of the Philippines to go on the east side of the country, in order to realign itself with the rest of Asia. In other words, the whole archipelago had to follow the eastern hemisphere.

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.

American period

After the transfer of sovereignty from Spain to the United States in 1898, the Philippines began moving toward modern standardized time offsets rather than individual local solar times. In the following year, the archipelago first adopted Philippine Time (PHT) as its uniform standard time. Under American colonial rule, the timezone was strictly defined to align with global standards at an offset of GMT+08:00. This change synchronized maritime trade, telegraph communication, and rail transport across the scattered islands.

During World War II, particularly under Japanese occupation (1942–1945), the occupying forces forced the country onto Japan Standard Time (JST). Clocks across the archipelago were advanced by one hour to GMT+09:00 to match Tokyo's schedule. With the liberation of the Philippines occurred from October 20, 1944 to August 15, 1945, the country reverted to its standard GMT+08:00 offset.

Postwar and contemporary period

Following independence in 1946, time synchronization remained largely voluntary for decades. During this period, the Manila City Hall Clock Tower served as the primary visual anchor for civil time.

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.

Timeline

Use of daylight saving time

Since 1991, the Philippines has not observed daylight saving time. It was in use for short periods during the presidencies of Manuel L. Quezon in 1936–1937, Ramon Magsaysay in 1954, Ferdinand Marcos in 1978, and Corazon Aquino in 1990.

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

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

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