LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 4 (PNA)–The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Bicol regional office on Monday said it has been noticing several breaches of the law that requires all national and government offices to display the Philippine Standard Time (PST) on their official time devices, including bundy clocks.
Republic Act 10535, otherwise known as the Philippine Standard Time (PST) Act of 2013 which was enacted on February 4, 2013, requires the synchronization with the official time provided by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) as the mandated keeper of the PST.
The law also provides sanctions to owners of private television and radio stations who fail to calibrate and synchronize their time devices with the PST during their broadcasts.
Violators could be penalized with fines ranging between P30,000 and P50,000 on the first offense and revocation and cancellation of their franchise to operate on the second offense.
The same law also requires all national and local government offices, including public and private schools, to conduct continuing information campaigns about the value of time and the need to respect the time of others for the people to realize the imperative of a synchronized official time.
With this, according to DOST Regional Director Tomas Briñas, “exact time should be known as Filipino time.”
In its continuing campaign, Briñas said, DOST now adopts the slogan “Juan Time is always on time” as the agency carries out science and technology (S&T) initiatives and undertakings that will set the pace for others to adopt.
The campaign, he said, pursues “One Time, One Goal, One Direction and One Thinking” and that “Juan” is a generic name for Filipinos and “Filipino time” was synonymous then for being late but this notion will soon be replaced with positive outlook.
Hence, Briñas said, “we are reminding all those concerns, like government offices as well as radio and television owners, to comply religiously with the requirement of the law on PST to avoid the sanction.”
He said, DOST-Pagasa has been noting violators and should they continuously ignore warnings issued to them, the agency will not hesitate to recommend the sanction.(PNA)