We Filipinos have this trait that we call “Filipino time.” Essentially, it’s how we refer to our habit of arriving later than the time agreed upon by everyone.
It’s safe to say that many would agree that A LOT of Filipinos often practice this habit. However, there are times that we arrive late—even when we don’t mean to. That’s just because we’ve all been victims of heavy traffic, the hassle during the rainy season, problematic transportation systems — you know all the reasons that we can’t tell our teachers, professors, or bosses why we’re not able to arrive on time. There are so many external and unexpected factors explaining why we got stuck in the “Filipino time” habit. Sometimes, we’re just victims after all (except for the times when you intentionally thought that arriving 15–30 minutes late wouldn’t hurt too much lol). Obviously, this is something people struggle with, and it’s some kind of universal sitch that everyone goes through.
To put it simply, the concept of “Filipino time” does not exist simply because Filipinos are used to arriving late or we intend to. It’s also due to all the situations we have to face as Filipinos.
However, as Filipinos as we are, we find humor in every situation, even if it means somewhat mocking our not-so-good experiences.
Here are a few Tweets that sum up the struggle of arriving late to the places we need to get to (all thanks to our 2-3 hour average commuting time).
Ika nga ni Queen Clarisse Renaldi, “A queen is never late, everyone is simply early.” Although Filipinos arrive late sometimes (or most of the time), we still slay. Right?
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