As with this article, Pilipinos have stereotypically known to be very late. "P/Filipino" time could mean waiting for your friend from a couple minutes to several hours from a target time--but it's never, ever on time (There is a legend of those who show up before it's time to meet). This business and friendship-straining tradition is as ubiquitous in the Philippines as it is in the U.S. Semi-on-the-dot this past September 30th, the Philippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST) unveiled their timely project to combat this issue in the Philippines.
DOST lovingly dubbed their project to synchronize all clocks across the country as "Juan Time." The leaders behind the project cited that unsynchronized time across the thousands of islands is one of the causes for the culturally-instilled tardiness. Using an atomic clock and multiple corporate and organizational partnerships, DOST hopes that the ease of finding out what time it is catches on across the country.
Although it's been a few weeks since "Juan Time" has been implemented, we haven't heard much about its successes or failures. But then again, the report could just be late.
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Photo by: JunCTionS
