The Philippines operates on Philippine Standard Time (PHT), which is 8 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+8). Despite being an archipelago of over 7,600 islands, the entire country follows a single timezone and does not observe daylight saving time.
Major cities including Manila, Quezon City, Cebu, Davao, and Makati all follow PHT. The Philippines shares its timezone with China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.
The Philippines is the world's second-largest archipelago nation and the third-largest English-speaking country. It's home to the world's longest Christmas season—celebrations start in September (the "-ber months") and end in January. The Philippines briefly used "Philippine Daylight Time" in 1990 to conserve energy during an electricity crisis but quickly returned to standard time.