Caritas Philippines Raises Concerns Over US-Backed AI and Semiconductor Hub

The Catholic Church’s social action and advocacy arm has come out against a U.S.-backed plan to build a large AI and semiconductor hub on farmland north of Manila, saying the project is moving forward without answers on who will control it or who will pay for it. Caritas Philippines said it “opposes” the proposed Pax Silica Industrial Hub in Capas, Tarlac province, “in its present form,” according to a statement from its president, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza. “It is being advanced without clear public answers on who will control it, where its enormous energy and water requirements will come from, how much public money and land will be committed, and which communities will bear its environmental and social costs,” Alminaza said. The site is not empty land, he said — it is home to Aeta Indigenous families, farmers and rural communities whose rights and livelihoods “must come before corporate and geopolitical interests.” The hub is envisioned as a 1,620-hectare technology zone inside New Clark City, built under Pax Silica, a 23-member, U.S.-led coalition formed in December to secure supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence and critical minerals. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. touted the hub as a centerpiece of his economic agenda in his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 27, saying it would “create an eco-system that will have AI at its core” and “bring quality jobs to our people, accelerate our industrial competitiveness, and revitalize our economy.” He described the project as an advanced manufacturing and logistics center within the Luzon Economic Corridor, positioning the Philippines in the global AI and technology value chain. Alminaza said Pax Silica must not become a pretext for land conversion, displacement, destructive mining or the diversion of electricity and water away from public use. The real question, he said, is not whether the Philippines should industrialize, but what kind of industrialization benefits Filipinos. “The Philippines cannot call it industrialization if we remain suppliers of raw materials, low-value components and cheap labor,” Alminaza said. Genuine development, he argued, should build Filipino ownership, technology and manufacturing capacity rather than extract resources for foreign-controlled supply chains. Caritas said it supports industrial growth that respects human dignity, environmental integrity, national sovereignty and the participation of affected communities. But it said any project that takes from the land and its people without giving them lasting benefit “is not progress.”