# Philippine Standard Time

Philippine Standard Time (PST or PhST; Filipino: 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 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.

## Geographic details

Geographically, the Philippines lies within 116°53′ 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 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. 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

| Period in use | Time offset from GMT/UTC | Name of time |
| Saturday, March 16, 1521 (Julian Calendar) – Monday, December 30, 1844 (Gregorian Calendar) | GMT−15:56 (in Manila) | local mean time |
| Saturday, March 16, 1521 (Julian Calendar) – Monday, December 30, 1844 (Gregorian Calendar) | GMT−16:12 (in Balabac, the westernmost island) | local mean time |
| Saturday, March 16, 1521 (Julian Calendar) – Monday, December 30, 1844 (Gregorian Calendar) | GMT−15:34 (in Davao Oriental, the easternmost area) | local mean time |
| Tuesday, December 31, 1844 | The day that never occurred as ordered by the Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria to add 24 hours to the local mean time. | Time Zone change |
| Wednesday, January 1, 1845 – May 10, 1899 | GMT+08:04 (in Manila) | local mean time |
| Wednesday, January 1, 1845 – May 10, 1899 | GMT+07:48 (in Balabac, the westernmost island) | local mean time |
| Wednesday, January 1, 1845 – May 10, 1899 | GMT+08:26 (in Davao Oriental, the easternmost area) | local mean time |
| May 11, 1899 – October 31, 1936 | GMT+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| November 1, 1936 – January 31, 1937 | GMT+09:00 | Philippine Daylight Saving Time |
| February 1, 1937 – April 30, 1942 | GMT+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| May 1, 1942 – October 31, 1944 | GMT+09:00 | Tokyo Standard Time |
| November 1, 1944 – April 11, 1954 | GMT+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| April 12, 1954 – June 30, 1954 | GMT+09:00 | Philippine Daylight Saving Time |
| July 1, 1954 – March 21, 1978 | GMT/UTC+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| March 22, 1978 – September 20, 1978 | UTC+09:00 | Philippine Daylight Saving Time |
| September 21, 1978 – May 20, 1990 | UTC+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |
| May 21, 1990 – July 28, 1990 | UTC+09:00 | Philippine Daylight Saving Time |
| July 29, 1990 – present | UTC+08:00 | Philippine Standard Time |

## 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 Sr. 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