President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday rejected the notion that the Philippines' participation in the United States-led Pax Silica initiative signals a move to distance itself from China or reduce its dependence on Beijing.

“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,” Marcos said during a luncheon with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) at the Diamond Hotel Manila.

The President maintained that the Philippines remains open to investments from various countries as long as they benefit Filipinos and the economy.

“If it (investments) comes from the US, Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, 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.

Marcos reiterated that the government has no policy of distancing itself from China, pointing to continued cooperation between Manila and Beijing despite their differences in the West Philippine Sea.

“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 said.

Pax Silica is a multilateral economic security framework launched in December 2025 aimed at securing global supply chains, integrating secure data ecosystems and expanding production capacity for semiconductors, artificial intelligence technologies and critical minerals.

The Philippines formally joined the initiative in April 2026, with New Clark City designated as a key site for industrial development, technology manufacturing and cross-border supply chains.