The Philippines joined the United States-led Pax Silica coalition on Thursday, April 16, and secured designation as the site for a 4,000-acre industrial zone in the Luzon Economic Corridor, a project Washington says will help wean allied supply chains off Chinese-controlled minerals and manufacturing.
Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo signed the Pax Silica declaration at the State Department, where US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg also welcomed Finland into the bloc.
The Philippines is the thirteenth country to join the coalition, which Washington formed in December 2025 with the goal of reducing reliance on China’s semiconductor industry.
The zone is being called an ‘Economic Security Zone’ – described in a State Department fact sheet as a hub where allied nations can co-locate manufacturing shaped by market demand and each country’s comparative advantages.
Neither government disclosed the zone’s exact location within Luzon, what industries will anchor it, how much money either side is committing, or when construction might begin.
The State Department’s fact sheet frames the Luzon zone as the first in a planned network of manufacturing hubs across continents that could eventually reduce reliance on China’s concentrated supply chains.
Philippine minerals and the China pipeline
The Philippines’ value to the coalition centers on its mineral reserves and its workforce.
The country is the world’s largest exporter of raw nickel ore and the second-largest producer globally, with reserves that place it among the top five nations for nickel, copper and cobalt. It is also the fifth-largest cobalt producer worldwide.
About 80% of Philippine nickel ore exports go to China, where it is processed into usable inputs for batteries, steel and electronics.
The industrial zone will sit within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a trilateral initiative with the US and Japan launched in April 2024 during a summit attended by then-President Biden, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The corridor’s flagship project is a 250-kilometer freight railway connecting Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas.
The US Trade and Development Agency recently increased its funding for the railway feasibility study from $2.5 million to $3.8 million.