PRESS RELEASE
August 31, 2026
QUEZON CITY, Philippines — The Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG) joined the launch of Network Opposed to Pax Silica at the CICM Maryhill School of Theology in Quezon City. The event was attended by advocates, farmers, indigenous leaders and indigenous community members, workers, people’s organizations, civil society organizations, environmental defenders, media, and others.
In the forum, leaders of the Aeta community of Sitio Sapang Kawayan, Capas, Tarlac shared their experiences of state repression, harassment, and displacement from their ancestral lands. Apung Petronila Capiz-Munoz, the village chieftain, mentioned that despite building a barricade, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) continued to harass them, issuing a deadline to vacate the land by December. BCDA serves as the lead government agency and primary implementer overseeing the Pax Silica initiative in the Philippines. Despite all this, the indigenous community remains resilient, as Apung Petronila reminded the audience: “Kahit hindi kami nakapag-aral, kinabubuhay namin ang lupa” (Even if we lack formal education, the land sustains us), while calling for the rejection of Pax Silica.
Antonio Dizon, Advocacy and Campaign Specialist for the environmental justice group BAN Toxics, emphasized that it is time to prioritize the welfare of the people over foreign profits, demanding concrete guarantees that local communities would not be displaced.
Meanwhile, Miss Universe Philippines 2026 Bea Millan-Windorski asserted that Pax Silica lacks a clear project description and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), reminding attendees that “the true heroes are the faces of the indigenous communities.”
Dr. Giovanni Tapang, Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM) Chair Emeritus and one of the network’s convenors, pointed out that it remains unclear where hazardous waste from mined critical minerals will be dumped, asking, “For whom?” Lastly, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Chairperson Teddy Casiño asserted that the Pax Silica framework illustrates the intense competition between the United States and China for artificial intelligence dominance, directly linking economic control of technology to military supremacy. Casiño also emphasized that the Philippines needs neither to choose between the US and China nor to join Pax Silica.
CPDG stands with the Filipino and Indigenous Peoples in rejecting the plunderous and destructive Pax Silica initiative.
We demand a genuine path to national industrialization and technology that serves the people–not profit, war, and plunder. We must stand together to defend ancestral lands, protect communities and the environment, and reject projects that put profit and foreign interests over human rights and welfare. Development should not mean displacement. Our land, resources, and sovereignty are not for sale. #
#PeopleCenteredDevelopment #DefendAncestralLands
#PhilippinesNotForSale #NoToPaxSilica