I think we've had just the one problem as well - a slight delay in the money being transfered. What was annoying was that we were in the Philippines at the time and had gone into the local branch to withdraw the money out of our account. It's normally so reliable we hadn't even checked the status of the transfer through the online system.
A PNB ATM card should work in most UK ATMs, though I'm not sure what the exchange rates/charges would be.
PNB Europe isn't that separate as we opened an account in the Bacolod branch through the London office.