THE island of Panay welcomed the new year in the dark, literally after multiple power plants shut down on the second day of 2024. Initially stating in an advisory that only the Panay Island power facilities had shut down, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines later disclosed that the entire Negros-Panay system had collapsed.

This prompted the government agencies to put the heat on the NGCP after it failed to intervene in the massive blackout in Western Visayas. They said the NGCP should have been more proactive with the situation and not waited for the system to close down.