In photo: The Manila City Tower Clock (Photo file/THEPHILBIZNEWS)
By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
Old folks would always say, “Yes you do not steal money or other things from others but if you steal other people’s time by being late, you are also a thief.”
Veering away from the concept of “Filipino time” of being late in the meeting, starting the scheduled activity and other activities related to time and punctuality.
The Department of Science and Technology took another initiative by endeavoring to synchronize all timepieces across the country’s more than 7,100 islands, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) unveiled the new “ORAS PINAS” in compliance to the Philippine Standard Time (PST). Previously dubbed as “Juan Time”, the ORAS PINAS campaign aims to promote the PST nationwide and ‘sync’ timepieces with the PST, the new Filipino Time.
Every year, the DOST leads in the observance of the National Time Consciousness Week (NTCW) pursuant to Republic Act No. 10535 or The Philippine Standard Time (PST) Act of 2013.
The NTCW is being observed during the first week of January of every year to promote the value of time and the need to respect the time of others, so that the people may realize the imperative of synchronizing the official time.
With the theme “Synchronizing Filipino Time with ORAS PINAS”, the NTCW 2021 further aims to introduce ORAS PINAS as the new brand of the PST with the tagline, “One Nation, One Time: Pilipinas ON TIME”. Through the new brand, the campaign hopes to institutionalize the new Filipino culture of being always on time and having only one time as a nation.
The PST is set by the DOST’s Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the country’s official timekeeper since 1978 as mandated by Section 6 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 8.
DOST-PAGASA sets the timing system that consists of a rubidium atomic clock, a Global Positioning System receiver, a time interval counter, a distribution amplifier, and a computer. So, to synch your timepieces, just visit the DOST-PAGASA website (http://bagong.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/) and get the new Filipino Time!