Marcos: PH must approve Pax Silica exploitation of local mineral resources

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Friday said he does not see how local mineral resources could be exploited by other countries through the Pax Silica industrial hub without the go-ahead of the Philippine government.

Marcos said this in a presidential luncheon hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), when asked how the government can ensure the rights of Filipinos, amid concerns that the planned tech hub may exploit the country’s minerals and displace indigenous peoples.

“Well, I cannot see how another country can come into the Philippines and, for example, exploit our minerals without the agreement of the Philippine government,” the President said.

He said that the country may actually have an opportunity to process its own minerals such as nickel, and directly benefit from its added value.

“The Philippines has the second largest reserves of nickel in the world. Right now, all that we are doing is we are exporting raw ore. And then it is processed somewhere else. The value that is added in that processing does not stay in the Philippines; that goes in another country,” Marcos explained.

“This provides us an opportunity to start the processing in the Philippines. Therefore, the value added to that will be left here in the Philippines,” he added.

To do that, the President said the Philippines has to develop processing centers.

“You have to provide the power for those processing centers. And if you cannot do it yourself, you do it in partnership with either a purely commercial venture or a G2G arrangement or some hybrid arrangement,” he explained.

“And that is the Philippines fully exploiting our own treasure, our own national treasure, our own natural resources. So that is a specific example, but it applies to many, many of the other things that fall under the category of our natural resources,” he added.

Marcos also expressed belief that any investment in the Philippines, regardless of which country it came from, is a “good deal” if it is for the mutual benefit of all parties involved.

“And it is a good deal that we will enter into no matter where it comes from. If it comes from the US, if it comes from Europe, if it comes from China, if it comes from Japan, if it comes from Korea, if it comes from Canada, Australia, we engage with anyone,” he said.

The President said the government is interested in opportunities that would benefit Filipinos in terms of jobs, investments, technology, training, reskilling and upskilling, among others.

“So long as we are able to move the economy forward and to better the lives of our people, then that is something that we will certainly examine. And if it turns out that that is a beneficial agreement or arrangement, then certainly we will become part of it. We will want to be part of it,” he said.

Malacañang earlier called on the public to direct any issues about the planned development of Pax Silica to concerned government agencies, saying that provisions of the United States-led initiative may still be adjusted as necessary.

In his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), Marcos said that the Pax Silica —an AI-focused industrial complex spanning 1,600 hectares in New Clark City in Tarlac—will benefit Filipinos by providing quality jobs.—LDF, GMA News