President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday hailed the economic benefits of the Pax Silica hub in his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona), which the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said was ‘not surprising’.
Bayan said that, despite the president praising the project, there was ‘mounting opposition’ to the United States-led initiative.
The organization staged a ‘People’s Sona’ along Commonwealth Avenue to counter Marcos’ speech, and the coalition’s condemnation of the industrial hub was one of the highlights of the demonstration.
The rally organizers said as many as 15,000 joined their protest.
But for Marcos, supporting Pax Silica is part of the country’s bid ‘to strive for bigger and greater things’ by ‘venturing into areas heretofore unimaginable,’ to position the country in the global value chain.
‘[A] product of the 23-member strong and US-led Pax Silica Initiative, the Pax Silica Industrial Hub will create an ecosystem that will have AI at its core,’ Marcos said in his speech.
‘It will bring quality jobs to our people, accelerate our industrial competitiveness, and revitalize our economy,’ the president noted.
He reported that the hub will be a strategic component of the Luzon economic corridor, which will be an ‘advanced manufacturing and logistics center in the global AI and technology value chain.’
The country has designated a 1,620-hectare site in New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac as the proposed location of an AI and advanced manufacturing hub under Pax Silica.
The hub can bring in up to P180 billion in total revenues per year and generate almost 200,000 jobs for Filipinos, according to the Bases and Conversion Development Authority.
But for Bayan President Renato Reyes Jr., the initiative will only create ‘low-value added jobs… on top of the environmental and social costs, and our integration into the US war production.’
‘Not surprising that he doubled down on Pax Silica despite the mounting opposition to it,’ Reyes told Inquirer in a text message. ‘Marcos Jr. clings to the discredited economic trope that foreign investments mean more jobs and economic growth.’
For Reyes, the president is now ‘desperate’ to offer a signed agreement with Pax Silica amid a possible Manila visit by US President Donald Trump in November for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Leaders’ Summit.