[tz] Philippine Standard Time

[Paul Eggert]

Paul Goyette wrote:
> Hmmm, the silence here is deafening!

Sorry, I've been busy with TZif stuff when I had time for tz-related things.

When I looked into this a couple of years ago, I looked for instances of "PHST" 
for Philippine Standard Time, as that is what tzdb used. I found few so PHST 
didn't make the cut. I didn't know about PST being part of recent Philippine law.

I just now checked more carefully, and found several instances of PST meaning 
Philippine Standard Time in reliable English-language sources. PST is the 
abbreviation tzdb used in releases 93g through 96j, and (as you reported) has 
been in Philippines law since 2013. For example:

The Philippine Star
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/08/01/1723584/partial-lunar-eclipse-august-7-observable-philippines

Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/643218/on-wednesday-night-moon-will-turn-dark-blood-red

ABS-CBN
http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/04/17/save-the-date-partial-lunar-eclipse-to-be-visible-in-ph

Conversely, some sources used PhST for the same thing, including:

Manila Bulletin
https://news.mb.com.ph/2017/10/07/candon-laoag-cities-sync-timepieces-with-philippine-standard-time/

Philippine Information Agency
http://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1003782

BusinessMirror
https://businessmirror.com.ph/no-more-filipino-time-it-should-be-on-time/

I did find a few instances of PHST as well (this is what tzdb used in releases 
96k through 2016j), but they were mostly in less-reliable sources. Here's an 
example:

Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://esports.inquirer.net/6762/the-international-5-invites-are-here

So, it does appear that reliable English-language sources use alphabetic 
abbreviations for Philippine time, but (a) they don't agree, and (b) they mostly 
don't use the "PHST" abbreviation that tzdb used in 1996 through 2016.

All in all, my impression is that "PST" is more popular among reliable 
English-language sources. This is not just a measure of Google hit counts: it's 
looking at the sizes and influence of the sources. So, my inclination would be 
to go back to "PST" for Philippines time, the way tzdb had it in 1993 through 1996.