The Apache php module is in the php53 package. That's the one you need to install. It will then pull in php53-common as a dependency.

The php53 package available for centos 5 lacks extensive php module support.

Consider using Centos 6 if using php 5.3 is a must, or compiling php from source if you need to stick with centos 5 and don't mind maintaining php without a package manager.

I'm running my own php 5.3.x based on the Fedora src.rpm

It builds in mock but uses some dependencies from EPEL.

If you want my src.rpm let me know.

I use php as package name and put excludes in the the CentOS repos.

I also run updated pear, and exclude pear packages from yum, using the pear interface itself to install / manage them.

I prefer the php53u packages from IUS Community Repo to give php 5.3.x support to my CentOS 5/6 linodes.

some time ago i was using php from http://centos.alt.ru but the maintainer did rollback to 5.2 for compatibility :/ (but i use nginx from here)