Pax Silica

What it is

A U.S. State Department initiative announced in December 2025 to secure supply chains for semiconductors, AI, and advanced tech. The Philippines signed on in April 2026 as roughly the 13th member — one of only two Southeast Asian countries in it, alongside Singapore.

The coalition was formed to counter China's dominance in chip manufacturing and rare earths — China is said to control 90% of rare earth refining. The declaration itself names "coercive dependencies" as the thing it's reducing.

The site

Manila and Washington want to sign the framework agreement governing the Pax Silica hub in New Clark City by November. BCDA announced it would span around 4,000 acres of land.

Nearly 5x larger than New York's Central Park.

Water and power

The Sacobia watershed, New Clark City's main water source, has reportedly shown strain since 2020. One cited estimate puts a single 1-gigawatt data center at roughly 15 billion liters a year, about twice New Clark City's total demand. The Makabayan bloc warns of the highest power rates in Asia.

Who is already there

A 2019 Senate estimate put 15,000 farmers and 20,000 Aeta and Abelling people in the path of New Clark City. No one has published a household count for the Pax Silica parcel.

Pros

Up to 190,000 direct jobs and $200B in exports at full build. $40–70B in investment; ₱68–75B a year in withholding tax and ₱60B in lease income over 25 years. Bingcang frames it as "brain gain" for Filipino engineers and researchers instead of brain drain. And the sector has stagnated at assembly and packaging for decades — negotiated well, this is a mechanism to break that.

Cons

Expressions of corporate interest are not binding investments; projected jobs are not employees. Water and power the region doesn't have. Land claims unresolved with no household count published. Governing law still unpublished four months from signing. And, Makabayan argues it subordinates the country to US war production while raising the risk of Chinese trade retaliation.