BAYAN condemns the Philippine government’s participation in the so-called “Pax Silica” initiative, which seeks to position the country as a hub for semiconductor and critical technology production aligned with the United States’ supply chains. Far from a neutral program for industrial growth, Pax Silica represents a deeper integration of the Philippine economy into U.S. militarized production systems.
At its core, Pax Silica is anchored in the extraction and processing of critical minerals—nickel, cobalt, and related inputs essential to semiconductor manufacturing and advanced electronics. These materials form the base of a vertically integrated chain from mining to chip production. Framed as “economic security” and “supply chain resilience,” this structure ultimately serves external strategic and military requirements rather than national development. Semiconductors and advanced electronics are central to contemporary warfare, embedded in drones, missile systems, surveillance networks, and communications infrastructure. By embedding production facilities within U.S.-aligned supply chains, the Philippines is being positioned as a support node in war-related production networks, supplying key technological inputs for sustained military operations.
This trajectory aligns with the intensification of joint military exercises such as Balikatan and Salaknib. These exercises prepare the military terrain, while Pax Silica consolidates the economic infrastructure that sustains it. Together, they reflect a coordinated transformation of the Philippines into both a logistical base and production site within U.S. power projection in the Asia-Pacific region.
The language of development masks this reconfiguration. Terms such as “industrial hubs,” “economic corridors,” and “resilient supply chains” obscure the fact that these projects are structured around external demand. Emerging “economic security” frameworks reinforce this shift through interconnected industrial and logistics initiatives, including the Luzon Economic Corridor, which links industrial zones, ports, and manufacturing nodes across Luzon to semiconductor and advanced production networks shaped within U.S.- and Japan-aligned strategic priorities. Among the projects under the LEC is a weapons manufacturing facility in Central Luzon. Economic planning is thus being reorganized to serve geopolitical competition, fusing infrastructure development with security strategy.
Within this system, the Philippines is assigned a subordinate role focused on low-value segments such as assembly and testing. Meanwhile, high-value design, technology control, and profits remain concentrated abroad. This deepens dependency, suppresses wages, and blocks genuine national industrialization. At the same time, intensified extraction of critical minerals accelerates environmental degradation, displacement, and labor precarity, particularly in rural and indigenous communities. The social and ecological costs are localized, while the benefits are externalized through global supply chains.
Beyond economic restructuring, this trajectory increases the country’s exposure to geopolitical conflict. Deeper integration into U.S.-aligned production networks draws the Philippines further into escalating rivalries, heightening risks tied to regional tensions. Economic integration becomes a pathway to strategic entanglement, placing the country within a system in which competition among major powers poses real risks of war.
This is not an isolated policy shift but part of a broader pattern under the Marcos Jr. administration: the expansion of EDCA sites, intensified Balikatan exercises, growing military logistics and manufacturing infrastructure, and the alignment of economic planning with U.S. strategic priorities. Together, these developments indicate a sustained reorientation of the state toward imperialist interests at the expense of sovereignty.
BAYAN calls for the rejection of Pax Silica and all related agreements that tie the Philippine economy to US war-making agendas. We demand transparency on all commitments involving critical minerals, semiconductor production, and industrial zones, including their environmental, labor, and security dimensions. It must be made clear whether such facilities are structured as dual-use systems capable of supporting military logistics and wartime production, and if so, they must be rejected
We call for a national industrial policy grounded in sovereignty that prioritizes national industrialization, genuine economic development, actual technology transfer, environmental protection, and workers’ rights and welfare.
The Filipino people must not be reduced to suppliers of raw materials, cheap labor, and strategic territory for imperialist plunder and wars. The struggle against Pax Silica is inseparable from the struggle against foreign military presence, unequal agreements, and imperialist domination.
No to war production disguised as development!
No to the Philippines as a supply chain outpost for imperialist plunder and war!
Fight for genuine national industrialization and economic development! Uphold Philippine sovereignty!