House bill pushes Philippine standard time in govt offices

MANILA, Philippines — With Philippine Standard Time (PST) still being ignored in some offices, a bill has been filed in the House of Representatives requiring all government offices to synchronize their official watches and clocks to it. House Bill 5902 seeks to have all government offices, government-owned corporations and local government units (LGUs) to maintain and observe their schedules based on PST. "It is imperative that our government maintain a cohesive working system bound together by a single time reference in order to synchronize government functions," author Rep. Narciso Santiago III (ARC) said on the House of Representatives website (www.congress.gov.ph). Santiago said the amended Presidential Decree No. 78 designated the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) as the official time service agency of the Philippines. But he said this still failed to solve the problem of tardiness. He said "multiple conversion and interpretation of time across our country (led) to inefficiencies in various services and processes." On the other hand, he said that despite the PST, government offices still resort to different sources of time reference when observing their own schedules. "In several occasions, difference in time lead to unnecessary friction brought about by the disparate interpretation of the schedules and their observance," Santiago said. Under Santiago's "One Time Philippines Act of 2009," Pagasa will provide for a system of disseminating the PST to all government offices on a regular basis. Santiago urged socio-civic groups, non-government organizations and the private sectors to observe PST also. - GMANews.TV