nginx + php = system() not working?

[F Bax]

I think I missed something simple? I installed 7.5 release in a VM. I then
installed nginx and PHP 8.3.3; with pkg_add. I then ran these two commands:
# rcctl enable php83_fpm
# rcctl start php83_fpm
I found an issue with php system() function; so created this simple script
which produces "HiThere"; why is the date not presented?

<?php
  echo 'Hi';
  system( 'date' );
  echo 'There';
?>