17/06/2026
STATEMENT | Workers in Jeopardy under US’ Pax Silica Initiative
The Solidarity of Asian Trade Unions Foundation (SATU) expresses its concern for Filipino workers, peasants, indigenous communities and residents who will be affected by the Pax Silica initiative and its following developments in New Clark City and surrounding provinces.
While the US government–along with the Marcos Jr. administration, presents Pax Silica as a groundbreaking technological and economic initiative, its intent and long-term effects raise serious concerns about job security, working conditions, displacement, and sovereignty.
The reported allocation of 4,000 acres of land through rent-free agreements primarily caters to the interests of US companies by removing the entirety of “economic security zones” from safeguards and jurisdiction of Philippine law. Workers’ cases and legal disputes in these enclaves will instead be subjected to an international arbitration system, potentially worsening work precariousness and repression, while surrendering control over land and resources in the long-term. Moreover, workers will still be subjected to precarious work, low wages, poor working conditions, while foreign companies under Pax Silica greatly benefit from exploiting cheap and repressed labor, while extracting valuable minerals from our provinces.
While the Pax Silica initiative is being boasted for its job-creation in Central Luzon, the Marcos Jr. administration blatantly disregards the environmental impact of the project, especially for worker and peasant communities in the affected areas. Pax Silica’s devastating transformation of waterways and natural terrain into large-scale data centers and infrastructure will not only displace vulnerable communities, but also significantly erode domestic food production capacity.
The Pax Silica initiative also puts workers’ communities at risk by transforming different parts of the provinces of Central Luzon into enclaves of weapons hubs. By establishing manufacturing sites for armaments and foreign war-aligned tech companies, Central Luzon and the entire country becomes a prime target for retaliatory attacks from opponents of the US in the Asia Pacific. The SATU Foundation asserts that safety and well being of workers and their communities should always be given priority over the strategic interest of major global hegemonic powers.
The SATU Foundation stands in solidarity with all workers, peasants, and communities asserting their rights to higher wages, secure livelihoods, and protected environment.
Economic development must serve the interests of the people. National progress must not come at the cost of workers’ rights, sovereignty, environmental destruction, and displacement of communities.
