ON THE 80th year of Philippine-American “Friendship” and the 250th year of the US imperialist state, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Panay denounces Pax Silica as the latest expression of Philippine dependence on the US, and enduring neo-colonial exploitation of our country.
Pax Silica is a US-led strategic coalition aimed at securing supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI) and minerals that are critical for imperialist economies. It supports the American mantra to hypocritically achieve “peace” by imposing US hegemony and pulling other countries to support its wars of aggression through economic and political commitments. Signatories of Pax Silica include the Philippines and 23 other countries, plus the European Union.
Pax Silica targets the Philippines for being rich in minerals such as silica, copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese and rare earth elements. Panay Island has a share of the 4.41 billion tons of copper ore in the country, as well as manganese reserves. The Philippines also has a large pool of low-paid semi-skilled unemployed laborers to be exploited in Pax Silica hubs.
The Philippines will host the world’s first concrete on-ground project under Pax Silica, after traitorous government officials offered 4000 acres of ancestral and agricultural land for conversion into an Economic Security Zone. Located in a former US air base in Tarlac in Central Luzon, this industrial hub is roughly one-third the size of San Jose de Buenavista (the capital of Antique) or Kalibo (the capital of Aklan), or half of the town of Leganes in Iloilo.
Far from developing Filipino technologies, Pax Silica will secure the Philippines as a vital cog in US-led supply chains not only for civilian purposes like telecommunications and modern gadgets, but most especially for the expansion of AI-powered machinery for US wars. Aside from being a source of resources, the Philippines will be a hub for developing, producing and hosting war materiel and a launch-pad for US acts of aggression in Asia-Pacific.
Pax Silica will raise the superprofits of the US military-industrial complex, including defense contractors and advanced technology companies that heavily fund surveillance systems, autonomous warfare and the global arms industry. Potential investors in the Economic Security Zone include Israeli companies that have already contributed to Israel’s genocide in Palestine, invasion of Lebanon and war on Iran.
BAYAN Panay is wary about the implications of Pax Silica and US intervention at the local level. For instance, the Iloilo Provincial Government and the Philippine Air Force aim to position the province as a strategic hub for the drone industry by establishing a center for drone technology, AI and 3D printing. This vision evolved into the plan to build one school-based “TechnoHub” in every congressional district of Iloilo and to spend for these hubs using the Special Education Fund of the local government.
For the whole country, signing into Pax Silica means selling out our people and our natural resources. Pax Silica will intensify land-grabbing and the conversion of land use for commercial-military purposes. It will further displace farmers and indigenous communities, and justify the deployment of more military units to the countryside. It will worsen labor exploitation, environmental destruction, and loss of our sovereignty over strategic resources.
BAYAN Panay insists that providing jobs for Filipinos and asserting our sovereignty can only happen within a concrete roadmap toward national industrialization–not under Pax Silica which demands the exemption of foreign officials and investors from Philippine law and which cannot promise fair trade deals with technology and knowledge transfer. Through national industrialization, we seek to build an internally stable national economy by providing domestic opportunities to develop Filipino technologies and compensate for Filipino talent.
BAYAN Panay rejects Pax Silica, including the Economic Security Zone and related projects that ultimately chain the Philippines to the US war machine. We call to abrogate all lopsided agreements with the US, including the Mutual Defense Treaty, Visiting Forces Agreement, Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, and the Bilateral Security Guidelines. We push for the adoption of an active, peaceful and genuinely independent foreign policy. – ELMER FORRO, secretary general, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Panay <bayanpanay2014@gmail.com>
