I.

INTRODUCTION

The Practice of Filipino Time Among Senior High School Students

I. Significance of the Study

The widespread practice of Filipino Time has caused various effects to our society

and towards our reputation as Filipino. Thus, this study was conducted to be

beneficial to the following:

Students. The result of this study will serve as a mode of enlightening students on

the risks and disadvantages Filipino Time can inflict on ones academic performance

and social interaction.

School Administration. The result of this study will serve as an input to school

administrations/administrators to lessen or discourage students and faculties to

practice Filipino Time to be more efficient and productive.

Community. Through the findings of this study, the community as a whole will be

informed of the negative effects Filipino Time inflicts towards our productivity and to

our character as a Filipino. This will open up to the possibility of abolishing this

negative habit from our culture as Filipinos.

Future Researchers. The future researches may use the findings of this study to

link or connect future researches about Filipino Time.

Filipino time has been a norm and part of the Filipino culture for years and has

been passed down from generation to generation. Every Filipino has the tendency of

practicing this negative habit resulting to various forms of inconvenience.

Students in academes are one of the best examples of the Filipino society that

likely practices this habit. Hence, this study seeks to answer the following objectives:

1. To describe how senior high school students manage their time to the practice of

Filipino Time ;

2. To describe the impact of practicing the habit of Filipino Time and;

3. To determine how the wrong time management affects the students academic and

personal life.

III. Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study will focus on how Filipino Time affects senior high school students

academic and personal life. This will discuss how students manage their time to the

practice of Filipino Time that will explain why Filipinos maintained this kind of

habit for generations provided with the background and history of Filipino Time.

Through this, it will further explain the origin and character of this negative habit.
 II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Filipino Time is the coined term for the embarrassing affliction of tardiness among

Filipinos Amazona (2010). It is one of the stomata of the Filipino culture where most

Filipinos tend to practice being late or to start late in any forms of events and gathering may

it be formal or informal. Many Filipinos accepted and practiced it so much that it has already

been a norm in the Filipino culture. It is also considered as a contagious habit where

bandwagon is observed. According to an article titled Why Filipino Time from

medium.com/@btantheman, Filipino Time can also be incredibly contagious, and a simple

situation shows how. Lets say a head of an organization needs to meet with some of his

members regularly at 1:20 pm every Tuesday. Since the head does not want his time wasted,

he would rather let his members get to the meeting place first and wait for him. Over time,

his members know he usually comes late, so they have no reason to be punctual either. As

such, instead of meeting at 1:20 pm every day, they usually start their meetings at 1:30 pm

already, because everyone has gotten used to being late. In a blog titled Filipino Time: For

Always by Mico Amazona, it is mind boggling how the general population of a certain nation

can be chronically late and yet, it has been tried and tested to be true up to this day.

However most Filipinos do not realize how crippling on their productivity Filipino time

can be and how it says a lot on the character of Filipinos. According to Brian Tan of

HangTime, with the deep-rootedness of tardiness in Philippine culture and literature, Filipino

time will always be a glaring facet of Filipino culture, and its strong network effects speaks

volumes about the kind of people Filipinos are.

This kind of practice takes us back hundreds of years ago back during the Spanish

colonization period. In a blog in retiredinsamar.com, whenever there are social events and

parties, there was a need to distinguish between the SENIORs and SENORITAs time and

the Filipino Indios (or Second Citizen) time. Filipinos were required to come at a later time

during events hosted by the Spaniards, where the Spanish conquistadores and mestizos,

would all have been properly hosted and seated. The late arrival would allow for the Filipino

guests to self-effacingly say they had already eaten. They would then assimilate on the sides

of the party where they would socialize quietly and make their own connections for business

and politics. They would provide applause and dance as directed by party organizers. They

were also often used as after dinner entertainers to their colonizers. As this became carried

through time, it became tradition and culture and it was possible because of a total of 300

years of colonization. Jose Rizal also mentioned in his novels titled Noli Me Tangere and El

Filibusterismo how Spanish people gave importance in their position by arriving late in any

occasion. One good example is the Gobernador heneral who always arrives late in any event.

However, De Viana said that the negative connotation of Filipino Time has never been a

part of the nations culture. She said that this concept started during the Spanish colonization

in the Philippines wherein they often have their banquet and Spanish people always arrive

late in the reception. Because of this, filipinos always believed that the one who arrives late,

is the one whos worth the wait. During the American colonial period, they noticed that

Filipinos always arrive late and thats when they started calling it Filipino time meaning,

they give more importance to theirself than in time and in the people who wait for them.
 Today, Filipino time thrives as a norm in the Filipino culture. It causes inconvenience

different aspects of the society. In an article by Excelsis Angel Ilagan titled Redefining

Filipino Time, the horrible Manila traffic and public transportation system is one of the

worse effects of the continuous practice of this habit. The lack of ability to discipline oneself

will always be a brand of the Filipino culture. As such, Filipino Time has transcended being a

mere habit of Filipinos. Instead, its become a form of branding of our people, our companies,

and our country as a whole already.

Research Design

This study is a descriptive study. It describes the observable facts on the negative effects
of practicing Filipino Time. The variables to be described in this study are the respondents
perception on the practice of Filipino time as perceived by the senior high school students of
Visayas State University.

Locale of the Study

This study was conducted in Visayas State University, ViSCA, Baybay City, Leyte

Respondents of the Study

The respondents of this study are the Senior High School students of Visayas State
University. Grade 11 HUMSS and Grade 12 TVL-CAP students were chosen randomly as
respondents. In order to gather the data for the study, there were 10 randomly selected
students in each grade level to answer the questionnaire.

Research Instrument

The research instruments employed to collect data for this study were questionnaires and
one on one interview. The questionnaires were both delivered to the Grade 11 and 12
students. The questionnaire consisted of 7 closed questions containing some situational and
self- explanatory questions. One on one interview was also conducted on a Grade 11 and 12
students that were randomly selected to provide a more in depth data.

Data Gathering Procedures

This study used the random sampling method specifically by adopting the fishbowl method.

Data Gathering Method

Content Analysis
 IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data gathered from the survey questionnaires shows that majority of the senior high

school students frequently practice Filipino Time. Based from the data, most of the senior high

school students prefer attending a particular event, activity or gatherings in about 30 minutes or

an hour late than the original indicated time. The gathered data also shows that most senior high

school students practice this habit simply because of the number of people or students that also

practice it. With a large number of people dwelling on this practice, it would seem more normal

or natural and understandable to the public rather than an inconvenience.

Responses from the respondents showed that the practice of Filipino Time seems to be a

regular or a normal custom in the Filipino culture. Most senior high school students explained

that they would purposely attend an event or a gathering late for they know that the other people

or visitors involved would probably arrive late too. Another reason of the respondents is that they

do not want to arrive too early for they do not want to waste their time waiting for the other

visitors knowing they would also come late, thus, practicing Filipino time is observed.

Practice of Filipino Time in the School Setting

In the school setting, Filipino time is also practiced by the majority. The data shows that

most of the senior high school respondents practice the habit in school. It can be observed mostly

in class attendance where some students tend to arrive late in their respective classes.

From the interview conducted on a grade 12 Senior high school, the tendency where a

student can attend his/her classes late is possible. This is because of some cases where instructors

or teachers also attend their classes late. As a manifestation, students would also arrive minutes
late than the original indicated time to avoid waiting too long for their instructor which leads to

lesser allotted time for the class discussion and activities that cripples the productivity of both

students and instructors.

Time Management of Senior High School Students to the Practice of Filipino Time

Senior High School students have various ways in managing their time. But because of

the presence of Filipino Time in our culture, the time management of senior high school students

is influenced by this habit.

In a case discussed by the interviewees about Filipino time in the school setting, some

students purposely practices Filipino time depending on their class subjects. As explained by the

respondents, some senior high school students attend their class subjects late depending on how

important the subject is. Students consider if it is a major or a minor subject. They tend to arrive

earlier or exactly at the indicated time provided that it is a major subject to avoid missing any

outputs since it will greatly reflect on their academic performance.

From the interviewees data, the personality displayed of some instructors or teachers

towards the class also correlates on how senior high school students manage their time. Lenient

instructors/teachers are most likely the ones who tolerate Filipino Time. Students who are tardy

consider this as an advantage since toleration of being late is observed. But on strict and time

conscious educators, Filipino time is less likely to be observed on the majority that is caused by

the strict implementation of discipline and punctuality towards students.