THE US-led Pax Silica initiative is said to be designed to build alternative tech manufacturing ecosystems independent of Chinese-controlled rare earths and supply lines. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. denied that the Philippines, by joining Pax Silica, is distancing itself from China, which, he told FOCAP members on Friday, is still one of the biggest investors in the country.’
PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of Destination PH
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. clarified that joining the ambitious United States-led Pax Silica means the Philippines is distancing itself from China, contrary to some observations that the Philiippines joined the initiative to ease its dependence on ‘Beijing in terms of nickel processing.
“I don’t see it that way. It’s not a binary thing, or either or. Whenever some are interested in coming and investing in the Philippines, so long as it has a mutual benefit to the parties involved, that for us is a good deal that we will enter into, no matter where it came from,” said President Marcos during a luncheon with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) at the Diamond Hotel Manila on Friday.
The President maintained that investors from various countries are welcome to invest in the country.
“Whether it comes from the US, Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, (or) Australia, we engage. What we are interested in is what benefits our people in terms of jobs, investment, advancement of our capabilities, technology, training, and reskilling and upskilling. So long as we will be able to move the economy forward and will better the lives of our people, then we are certainly agreeing to that arrangement or agreement. We will become a partner,” he said.
President Marcos also reiterated that there is no government policy that the country is distancing itself from China, as there are many instances, he said, where the Philippines has much cooperation with China.
“China is one of the biggest investors still in the Philippines. When the war broke out in the Middle East, for example, China was one of the countries we engaged with. The People’s Republic dealt with that engagement on a purely practical and professional level. And all of these conflicting claims in the West Philippine Sea simply did not enter into that discussion. And China is one of the only two countries where we have a no-visa entry policy, so that is hardly distancing ourselves from China,” Marcos explained.
The Pax Silica initiative is a multilateral economic security framework launched in December 2025 to secure global supply chains, integrate secure data ecosystems, and expand allied production capacity for semiconductors, artificial intelligence technologies and critical minerals.
The Philippines formally joined the initiative in April 2026, designating a primary AI-native industrial acceleration and manufacturing enclave within New Clark City as the cornerstone for its operational logistics, technology manufacturing, and cross-border supply chains.
Pax Silica goes beyond AI, data centers
In a separate briefing at the Economics Journalist Association of the Philippines, also yesterday, Department of Economy, Planning and Development Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the country should look beyond artificial intelligence and data centers when assessing the investment potential for the establishment of the Pax Silica hub inside the New Clark City in Tarlac.
