PAX SILICA – A Strategic Project of American Hegemony on The Edge

Issue Analysis No. 06 Bobby M. Tuazon Director for Political Studies Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)

After installing Expanded Defense Cooperation Agreements (EDCAs) in nine different sites in the Philippines between 2014 under former President Benigno Aquino III and current President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., both the US and Philippine administrations have drawn flaks from peasant and other progressive organizations particularly in Tarlac province, Central Luzon, in reaction to a new, ambitious project called Pax Silica.

Launched in December 2025, Pax Silica (“Silicon Peace”) is a US-led ambitious and massive international strategic initiative with Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. playing as second fiddle. The project aims to secure supply chains for artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and critical minerals aimed at reducing if not bringing to zero economic reliance on China especially in trade.

The Philippines possesses massive, largely untapped mineral wealth estimated at over $1 trillion, with only about 5% of its potential mineral land explored and roughly 3% covered by active mining contracts.

It ranks as the fifth most mineralized country in the world with a historical record dating back to American colonization.

However, severe environmental degradation, social conflicts between mining villages on the one hand and foreign and local companies on the other - as well as regulatory hurdles - are the primary threats facing the Philippine mining sector.

American companies are most benefited by securing critical tech supply chains for artificial intelligence and semiconductors outside of China. Economically, it opens multi-nation manufacturing and supposedly creates high-tech jobs; in security terms, it reduces geopolitical vulnerabilities and counters technological dominance by China.

The project is under development, assigning 4,000-acre (1,620-hectare) economic security zone proposed for New Clark City, Capas, Tarlac, Central Luzon.

Alliance

Pax Silica is an “economic and technological alliance” led by the US state department with over a dozen partner countries.

Aside from host Philippines, the US plan includes over 30 member and partner nations globally. Key participating countries contributing capital, technology, and strategic support to the multi-regional coalition include Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, UK, Israel, India, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Finland, Sweden, and the EU bloc.

Ideologically, most of the member-countries are aligned with the US.

Marcos Jr. said that the Philippines' participation in the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative is not anti-China or a "binary" choice between Washington and Beijing. Manila insists the economic strategy focuses on domestic mineral processing and technology growth rather than distancing itself from China.

Officially, the Philippines' inclusion in Pax Silica will allow it to process its own nickel and break its dependence on China, which buys most of the country's ore, the Philippine ambassador to the US said. Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, another Marcos Jr. cousin, said Pax Silica will boost the country's mining industry by shifting processing onshore instead of shipping raw ore to China.  

At least 92% of all nickel ore shipments from the Philippines went to China from 2020 to 2024, Climate Rights International and Empower said.

Romualdez promises that the initiative could bring $300 billion in investments and create millions of jobs over 20 to 30 years. How that is possible remains a question. 

US Goal

But what is the overarching goal of the US plan to mine whatever remains of Philippine mineral resources?

The US still holds vast underground mineral wealth but imports a large share of its active supply - ranging from 48% to 100% for critical tech and defense minerals. It can be gleaned that US mineral extraction in the Philippines is not only for economic reasons but also for military purposes.

With 800 military facilities across the globe with munitions in a state of depletion Pentagon is deeply involved in fighting wars in Iran, Ukraine, and other flashpoints while supplying arms for its military bases across the Middle East and elsewhere. With its arms industry threatened by shortages as it wages wars across the globe the US is in desperate search for arms-producing minerals in the Philippines and elsewhere.

Condemnation

However, the Pax Silica plan has drawn denunciations from farmers and other organizations. They warned of the displacement of farming and fishing communities from the 16,189-hectare techno-hub in Tarlac.

While the Marcos administration is upbeat in justifying the US plan as a major boost for tech investments and local mineral processing, groups like the Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM ) and local farming communities led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP – Peasant Movement in the Philippines) strongly oppose the anticipated severe resource, displacement, and geopolitical risks.

KMP along with other critics and scientists fear that AI and high-tech manufacturing hubs demand continuous, high-volume inputs of water and electricity. This threatens to drive up electricity costs for local consumers and strain the public power grid. At stake is the future of farming communities which continue to be marginalized by the day. Food security and that of millions of farm, vegetable, and fish consumers is at stake.

Aside from farmers, indigenous Aeta communities in Tarlac (such as in barangays O'Donnell, Aranguren, and Santa Lucia) face direct physical and economic displacement from their ancestral lands and productive agricultural zones.

AGHAM has argued there is nothing in the agreement that guarantees technology transfer to Filipinos and will only lead to a dependence on foreign companies.

Economist Cielo Magno also warned that, while the concept of mineral processing is a step forward, the country still stands to lose from Pax Silica if the government continues to charge the lowest mining taxes and royalties in the region.   

This low taxation means that despite having the resources, Manila is "unable to negotiate" a fair deal, the former Finance undersecretary argued.

Pax Silica, Romualdez argued however, will not further ensnare the Philippines in the US-China row, but admitted there is truth to the geopolitical dimension.

The US has been upfront about Pax Silica as its way of countering China's world dominance in the AI and semiconductor supply chain. 

The US fear is not without ground. The monetary value of China’s dominance in the artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor supply chain is about ₱250.5 trillion. Moreover, China possesses 80% of rare earth minerals giving that country a big leverage over the US military whose weapons systems like Tomahawk missiles are critically low – and rely on China for key resources. Cutting off supplies of rare earth and other minerals will send the US off the rails.

Take the case of Iran: This West Asian country manufactures in the underground missiles and drones whose volume is unmatched by US and Israel thus giving Tehran the advantage of waging an attritive war as its enemies’ missile system is getting short by the day. With its genocidal war going downhill, this has forced the US to call for a ceasefire. Iran, ever wary, doesn’t bite.

This has exposed the US as a weakling or, what free China’s founder said, a “paper tiger”. The US economic crisis also limits President Trump’s capacity to finance wars now and in the future.

On the other hand, the United States’ ongoing wars have triggered significant financial volatility. A severe global energy and inflation shock occurred following the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran in February 2026. The economic strain is highly localized for everyday Americans; over 80% of the population faces a "K-shaped" reality where high living costs, restrictive financing, and elevated gas prices are squeezing household budgets through the roof.

The US economy is also drained off by monumental costs spent in maintaining the powerful military-industrial complex (MIC) whose continuous production of weapons systems are made rational by the White House’s neo-conservative line of waging a campaign of wars-for-profit.

Meanwhile, pressed on whether the country can maintain an independent foreign policy, Romualdez said the Philippines has "very little choice" but to align with Washington. China stakes a claim over South China Sea (SCS) based on sovereignty, discovery, and settlement grounds. The US backs the Philippines’ counterclaim in the process deploying naval ships and coast guards on the pretext of Freedom of Navigation and Operations (FONOPs) apart from decades of its encirclement and containment strategy against China.

Till now, no reaction has come from the Chinese Embassy in Makati on the Pax Silica project given the plan’s goal.

Pursuing Asean’s neutrality

While the Philippines together with Singapore support Pax Silica, other Asean members pursue economic hedging strategies or separate trade frameworks.

Overall, the Marcos government has been cited for pushing executive agreements and fast-tracking industrial zones sans public consultation or free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) from affected grassroots and indigenous communities, as public policy and good governance requires.

As a matter of foreign policy, the decision to establish the first major Pax Silica AI-native industrial acceleration hub dovetails with the Philippine government’s consistent role as a vassal state of the US especially on extractive minerals – even if the plan serves mainly the American interest.

The Philippines will remain the subject of extractive industries until such time where resources are gone. Countries that avail of the country’s resources down the bottom pit will become richer while Filipinos continue to lose their future.

Instead of being availed of by foreign interests, mineral resources should be claimed by Filipinos – their rights protected by a people-centered government. This is the key to industrialization and modernization. #