MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Forget about the power outage at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), or the glitch that affected many account holders of GCash.

For almost three hours today, Friday — on the last banking day of the week — most of the major Philippine banks closed their doors to the anger and frustration of many of their customers.

Millions of Filipinos expected their weekday or mid-month paychecks but the bank closures prevented them from withdrawing their money. Millions of others expressed disgust that they could not take out cash from their ATMs for their weekend shopping.

The Adobo Chronicles’ investigative team traced the unexpected bank closures to “system outrage.”

Quite understandable.