The acting chief of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Monday said the agency will ensure the Pax Silica project complies with environmental regulations amid opposition from several groups over fears of massive energy and water consumption and the potential displacement of local residents.
Acting DENR Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna made the remarks Monday during the sidelines of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address at the House of Representatives.
‘We will ensure environmental compliance will be strictly observed,’ Cuna told reporters in an ambush interview.
Cuna said, ‘We look forward to a big project like this that will provide jobs and help our economy, but we will definitely not sacrifice the environment for the Pax Silica.’
However, protesters along Commonwealth Avenue, including the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, expressed their strong opposition to the United States-led project during the ‘People’s Sona’ to counter Marcos Jr.’s.
The KMP said ‘the broad public opposition against Pax Silica brewing online should translate into actual collective action to reject this US-led initiative and stop its realization.’
‘The Marcos Jr. administration’s participation in the US-led Pax Silica initiative will accelerate land grabbing, agricultural land conversion, destructive mining, and the displacement of farming and indigenous communities under the guise of digital development and artificial intelligence,’ KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos said in a statement over the weekend.
However, Cuna said that the initial area identified for the Pax Silica hub is within New Clark City and ‘has no inhabitants, and in that sense, the community will not be disturbed.’
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 the Pax Silica initiative.
The Pax Silica hub can bring 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.
However, the Makabayan bloc on Saturday said the planned hub would require about five gigawatts of electricity, which they claimed would put pressure on the country’s already fragile power grid.
Last week, Marcos Jr. met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and discussed several matters including opportunities related to the Pax Silica hub.