Some Catholic Church leaders and a group in the Philippines have contributed their voices in raising serious concerns regarding the proposed United States-led Pax Silica Project in the Philippines.
The country’s largest network of Catholic schools, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP); Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, president of Caritas Philippines, the Church’s social action and advocacy arm in the country; and Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David have identified significant gaps about the planned huge project in the country.
Skepticism brought by lessons from past projects
CEAP urged government leaders to build trust through transparency, environmental responsibility and meaningful community participation.
It said public skepticism about the project reflects the lessons from past extractive industries that promised economic progress but often left communities with environmental damage, weak oversight and few lasting benefits.
‘These concerns should not be dismissed as opposition to development but recognized as important questions about intergenerational equity, environmental sustainability, and national economic strategy,’ CEAP said in a statement.
The educators said past extractive projects promise prosperity but leave behind environmental degradation, weak regulatory enforcement, limited community benefits and little local industrial development, making public skepticism ‘both understandable and legitimate.’
‘Opposes the hub in its present form’
Meanwhile, Caritas Philippines ‘opposes’ the proposed Pax Silica Industrial Hub in Capas, Tarlac, ‘in its present form,’ according to a statement from Bishop Alminaza, saying the large artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor hub is moving forward without answers on who will control it or who will pay for it.
‘It is being advanced without clear public answers on who will control it, where its enormous energy and water requirements will come from, how much public money and land will be committed, and which communities will bear its environmental and social costs?’ Alminaza said.
Questions based on popes’ encyclicals
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David said in a Facebook post that for the Philippines the real question is whether Pax Silica ‘will help build Filipino scientific capability, technological innovation, and industrial resilience? Or will it primarily serve the strategic interests of others while Filipinos provide the land, natural resources, water, energy, tax incentives, and labor?’
These are legitimate questions, he explained, ‘not because we oppose foreign investment, but because genuine partnership should strengthen the nation that hosts it.’
The cardinal said ‘prudence requires transparency, technology transfer, meaningful participation of Filipino scientists and industries, responsible stewardship of the environment, and a clear commitment to moving our country up the value chain rather than remaining merely a source of raw materials and cheap labor.’
David quoted the popes’ encyclicals ‘to raise an even deeper question.’
He cited ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ (‘Magnificent Humanity’)-the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV that is concerned with safeguarding the human person in the age of AI.
It reminds that what is important is not what AI can do, ‘but what kind of human beings we are becoming.’
‘Technology must remain the servant of humanity, never its master,’ he said
In ‘Fratelli Tutti’ (‘All Brothers’), Pope Francis’ encyclical, reminds that ‘humanity cannot build its future on the logic of competing national interests alone.’
‘The digital revolution must not become another arena where technological power is used for domination rather than cooperation,’ he said.
The cardinal said the Catholic Church, as a communion of local Churches that transcends national borders ‘remains one of the few truly global institutions capable of offering a moral vision that rises above geopolitical rivalries.’
‘She does not ask nations to abandon their legitimate interests, but to place them at the service of the common good of the entire human family.’
He pointed out that the ultimate question ‘is not simply whether Pax Silica will make economies stronger or [AI] more powerful.’
‘The real question is whether it will help build what Pope Leo calls a civilization of love rather than a culture of power-a future in which technological progress serves human dignity, social fraternity, care for our common home, and peace among nations.’
Calls for transparency, public participation
Like Bishop Alminaza, Cardinal David and other skeptics, the educators also called for stronger transparency, meaningful public participation, independent environmental monitoring, fair benefit-sharing, and ‘clear commitments to local processing and value-added industries’ before the project advances.
CEAP said countries get their greatest long-term benefits from strategic minerals when they invest beyond extraction in manufacturing, research, innovation, skilled workers and strong public institutions.
‘The long-term success of high-purity silica development depends less on the resource itself than on the strength of governance, regulatory institutions, environmental stewardship, and industrial policy,’ CEAP said.
‘A project that does not give people lasting benefit is not progress’
The hub is envisioned as a 1,620-hectare technology zone inside New Clark City, built under Pax Silica, a 23-member, US-led coalition formed in December to secure supply chains for semiconductors, AI and critical minerals.
Alminaza said the site is not empty land-it is home to Aeta Indigenous families, farmers and rural communities whose rights and livelihoods ‘must come before corporate and geopolitical interests.’
The project aims to position the Philippines as a supplier of high-purity silica, a critical mineral used in semiconductor wafers, fiber-optic cables, photovoltaic cells and other technologies supporting artificial intelligence, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.
The government estimates project the venture could attract $40 billion to $70 billion in investments and create more than 130,000 high-quality jobs for engineers, scientists, technicians, researchers and other skilled workers.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. touted the hub as a centerpiece of his economic agenda in his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 27, saying it would ‘create an eco-system that will have AI at its core’ and ‘bring quality jobs to our people, accelerate our industrial competitiveness, and revitalize our economy.’
It was described as an advanced manufacturing and logistics center within the Luzon Economic Corridor, positioning the Philippines in the global AI and technology value chain.
Alminaza said the project must not become a pretext for land conversion, displacement, destructive mining or the diversion of electricity and water away from public use.
The real question, he said, is not whether the Philippines should industrialize, but what kind of industrialization benefits Filipinos.
‘The Philippines cannot call it industrialization if we remain suppliers of raw materials, low-value components and cheap labor,’ Alminaza said.
Genuine development, he argued, should build Filipino ownership, technology and manufacturing capacity rather than extract resources for foreign-controlled supply chains.
Caritas said it supports industrial growth but it should respect human dignity, environmental integrity, national sovereignty and the participation of affected communities.
It said any project that takes from the land and its people without giving them lasting benefit ‘is not progress.’