The Clock tower ofManila City Hall is the icon for synchronizing the time in the whole Philippine archipelago, before anatomic clock was introduced in the country in 2012. The purposes of these Philippine "towering timepieces" are to tell the time and to serve aslandmarks.
Philippine Standard Time (PST[1][2] orPhST;[3][4]Filipino:Pamantayang Oras ng Pilipinas), also known asPhilippine Time (PHT),[citation needed] is the official name for thetime zone used in thePhilippines. The country only uses a single time zone, at anoffset ofUTC+08:00, but useddaylight saving time for brief periods in November 1, 1936 until September 20, 1978.
For 323 years, 9 months, and 4 days,[note 1] 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 asMexico. This was because it was a Spanish colony supplied and controlled via Mexico throughManila-Acapulco Galleon 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.[6]
On August 16, 1844, the Spanish Governor-GeneralNarciso 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 theInternational 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 ofAsia.[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.[citation needed]
Philippine Standard Time was instituted throughBatas Pambansa Blg. 8 (that defined themetric 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 the12-hour clock in non-military situations.[note 2][citation needed][dubious –discuss]
In September 2011, theDepartment 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 arubidiumatomic 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 order to promote synchronicity with official time, on May 15, 2013, PresidentBenigno 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]
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 orThree pm
12:00 pm –Twelve Midday orTwelve 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 isHatinggabi.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 orApatnapú'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 orTatlumpû(ng minuto) makalipas ng ikalimá ng umaga orKalahati 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 oIkatló ng hapon
12:00 P.M. –Alas dose (A las doce) ng tanghalì oIkalabíndalawá ng tanghalì
12:00 A.M. –Alas dose (A las doce) ng hatinggabi oIkalabíndalawá ng hatinggabí
2:00 A.M. –Alas dos ng madalíng araw (A las dos) oIkalawá ng madalíng araw
^Within the Papal Bull of Pope Gregory XIII that mandated the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Italy, Portugal, and Spain (including its overseas possessions like the Philippines, and the Americas) skipped 10 days to make the process of a calendrical switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Thursday, October 4, was followed by Friday, October 15, 1582. Because the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap year day regularly and the Gregorian calendar did not during centennial years (ending with “00”, unless if the centennial year is evenly divisible to 400 years. Then the year will automatically be a "Century Leap Year"), the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 11 days from March 1 (O.S. February 19), 1700 until February 28 (O.S. February 17), 1800, and another one day to 12 days from March 1 (O.S. February 18), 1800 to February 28 (O.S. February 16), 1900; the count of excess days became considered as only 2 instead of 14 at the end of 1844, to acknowledge the 10 days that the Philippines lose during the period when it was using the American date.
^Aside from the 12-hour clock, the Philippines also uses 24-hour clock format as the personal preference of some Filipino people. Smartwatches sold in the Philippines are programmed to display a 24-hour clock as a default function. Even smartphones, laptops, or personal computers can be set to a 12-hour clock format also being programmed to 24 as what they preferred to use. But still pronounced as 12-hour orally.
^DuringWorld War II, the Philippines became under the 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 theBattle of Leyte Gulf and then liberated Visayas on October 26, 1944. After a few days, the clocks set back to Philippine Standard Time.
^"Republic Act No. 9522".Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Archived fromthe original on August 14, 2018. RetrievedFebruary 13, 2022.
