Senate Bill 3479 to cure culture of Filipino Time
Posted on October 19th, 2009
The culture of “Filipino Time†has long been ailing the country and it has caused many a discomfort and even losses and misunderstandings to some. To cure this Filipino’s culture of tardiness, which commonly called the “Filipino time,†Senator Edgardo Angara filed Senate Bill 3479 which aims to “breed a new culture of promptness†among Filipinos.
The senator’s bill seeks to synchronize all time devices in the Philippines to set a standard Philippine time. “This is a good way to start changing the meaning of ‘Filipino time’ and shifting to a culture of punctuality. Time is a vital component of our social, legal, political and economic activities,†Angara said.
Under his proposal, Sen. Angara requires all national and local government offices to display the Philippine standard time (PST) on their local time devices in accordance with the official time to be provided by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services’ Administration (PAGASA).
The PAGASA’s Time Service Unit, according to the senator, will coordinate with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to monitor, maintain and disseminate the PST throughout the country. All government offices are mandated to coordinate at least once a month with PAGASA to synchronize their official timepieces and devices.
The bill also appropriates an amount of P69 million for the acquisition of six units of equipment for automatic dissemination of time with Global Positioning System. The said amount would be included in the annual budget of PAGASA under the DOST for the upgrading and /or maintenance of the timekeeping system.
In most European cities, Angara said, transportation schedules, business hours, cultural events, hospital operations, and government office hours all adopt a single standard time.
The same bill proposal also applies for plazas, public monuments and museum, schools, offices, shops, railways and bus stations, and transportation terminals, to ensure citizens of proper scheduling of their activities and accuracy in their travel times.
