Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) strongly rejects Malacañang’s dismissal of legitimate concerns over the so-called “Pax Silica” initiative. Presidential Spokesperson Claire Castro’s portrayal of the project as a mere economic and technological opportunity ignores its real geopolitical agenda and the grave dangers it poses to the Filipino people.
In truth, Pax Silica is a key component of the US strategy to dominate the global AI supply chain and wage economic warfare against China. From securing rare earth minerals and other strategic resources, to controlling semiconductor production, to establishing energy- and water-intensive AI data centers, the initiative seeks to restructure global production in line with the US’ strategic rivalry with China.
Under this scheme, the Philippines’ role is not as an independent, trickle-down beneficiary of development but as a forward operating base in an economic and technological war. The proposed Economic Security Zone and related infrastructure are aimed at reducing US dependence on China while tightening control over critical technologies and supply chains.
For the Filipino people, this means intensified plunder of our natural resources, particularly greater extraction of rare earths and other critical resources, threatening farming communities, indigenous peoples, and the environment. Massive AI data centers will consume enormous amounts of electricity and water in a country already struggling with high power costs, inadequate infrastructure, and recurring water shortages. These projects will prioritize the needs of foreign corporations over the welfare of ordinary Filipinos.
Pax Silica also deepens our entanglement in the escalating US-China rivalry. Facilities built to support US-controlled AI and hi-tech weapons supply chains are potential military targets in a full-scale conflict between the US and China.
The Marcos administration continues to present these initiatives as purely developmental while concealing their strategic military dimension. The Marcos regime’s complicity in Washington’s scheme to fully integrate the Philippines into the US war economy and first island chain containment strategy against China is tantamount to treason. Its noisy posturing in the West PH Sea serves to obscure the more fundamental issue of its puppetry to US imperialism and its dire impact on the country’s sovereignty and future.
The Philippines should pursue genuine industrialization and technological development based on national needs, not on the geopolitical objectives of a foreign power. Our mineral resources, energy systems, and technological future must serve the Filipino people rather than the strategic interests of US monopoly corporations and military planners.
BAYAN calls on the Filipino people to reject Pax Silica and all schemes to transform our country into a platform for economic warfare, intensified plunder, and future armed conflict. The government must abandon policies that undermine national sovereignty and development to US strategic interests and instead pursue an independent foreign policy, national industrialization, and the protection of our country’s resources for present and future generations.