One comes from an earthquake, one comes from a storm. They have different warnings, different timing, and only one of them is on a hazard report. Here is the difference.
Both push seawater inland. Both can be several metres deep. Both are most dangerous on low coastal ground. That is where the similarity ends.
Getting the difference right matters, because the warning you get, the time you have, and the map you should be reading are all different.
Cause: a tropical cyclone. Low pressure lets the sea bulge upward and wind pushes water toward the shore.
Warning: hours to days. PAGASA issues storm surge warnings alongside the tropical cyclone bulletins, and the storm is visible on satellite long before it arrives.
Timing: it comes with the storm, peaks around landfall, and recedes as the storm passes.
Mapped? Yes. Storm surge advisory levels are modelled and mapped nationally, and a hazard screening reports the exposure at your exact coordinates. See the storm surge brief and what storm surge advisory levels mean.
Cause: usually a large undersea earthquake displacing the sea floor. Also possible from a submarine landslide or a volcanic collapse.
Warning: minutes to hours, depending on where the earthquake was. A distant tsunami from across the Pacific may give hours. A local one from a nearby offshore fault may give minutes, and PHIVOLCS is explicit that for a local event the earthquake itself is the warning.
Timing: a series of waves, not one. The first is often not the largest, and the sequence can run for hours. The sea sometimes withdraws first, exposing the sea floor, which is a sign to move immediately.
Mapped? Not as a layer on a CheckHazard report. There is no national point-level tsunami susceptibility dataset that we read, and we will not print a rating we cannot source. PHIVOLCS produces tsunami hazard information and is the authority.
A screening that quietly implied it covered tsunami would be worse than useless on a coast like the Moro Gulf, which has a documented history of a destructive tsunami after a large offshore earthquake in 1976.
The same principle applies to sinkholes in limestone country and to why liquefaction is labelled an estimate. Where the data does not exist, the honest output is to say so. See a layer came back blank on your report.
The mapped part and the unmapped part need different responses.
For storm surge, use the map.
For tsunami, use the plan.
The overlap is useful: the same high ground serves both, and knowing the route serves you in either event.
PHIVOLCS is the authority on earthquakes and tsunami. PAGASA is the authority on storms and surge warnings. A hazard screening reports mapped storm surge exposure, elevation, and distances at your coordinates from public national datasets, and it does not rate tsunami. Treat those as three separate sources and use each for what it is good at.
CheckHazard does not replace a professional geotechnical or engineering survey.