QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES | September 9, 2026 — The proposed Pax Silica Hub in New Clark City, a one thousand six hundred (1,600) hectare artificial intelligence, semiconductor, and hyperscale data center complex, is being promoted as a pathway to national competitiveness and technological modernization.
We assert that no form of development can be considered progress if it undermines community well-being, accelerates ecological collapse, and violates ecosystems’ inherent rights.
Recent reports reveal the scale of the project’s resource demands: thirty-nine (39) billion liters of water annually, equivalent to the irrigation needs of thousands of hectares of rice land; three (3) gigawatts of electricity relying heavily on LNG; massive solar farms requiring 20,000+ hectares of land; and water extraction scenarios reaching 500,000 cubic meters per day, which can threaten aquifer stability and food production in Tarlac and neighboring provinces.
These figures show that Pax Silica represents a new frontier of extractivism, where digital infrastructure justifies large-scale water diversion, land conversion, and energy expansion at the expense of ecological integrity.
Nature should not become collateral for digitalization. Nature or ecosystems possess intrinsic rights to exist, evolve, and regenerate. These rights cannot be subordinated to the demands of AI cooling systems, semiconductor manufacturing, or hyper scale data operations.
Pax Silica’s projected water and energy footprint would deplete aquifers already stressed by climate-induced droughts. It would compete directly with agricultural water needs, threatening food security for up to 600,000 Filipinos annually if it displaces farmland. It will increase dependence on imported LNG, further pushing the country into carbon-intensive energy pathways, and increase the risk of contamination from semiconductor wastewater containing heavy metals and toxic chemicals, with long-term impacts on community health and ecosystems. These are not hypothetical risks; they are documented outcomes in other countries where semiconductor zones triggered farmer protests, crop losses, and irreversible aquifer damage.
Lastly, Pax Silica forms part of a U.S.-led strategic architecture aimed at reducing dependence on China. It will benefit multinational tech firms and governments seeking secure mineral supply chains, but places Philippine ecosystems and communities on the front lines of great-power competition and geopolitical risks.
Communities have the right to ecological security and self-determination. They should not be passive recipients of development; they are guardians of their ecological territories. Yet Pax Silica is advancing without comprehensive feasibility studies, a full Environmental Impact Assessment, Senate oversight, genuine public consultations, and clear ecological thresholds or water-use limits
Bypassing these safeguards undermines democratic accountability and violates the principle of community consultation and consent, a cornerstone of ecological justice and good governance.
We reject the idea that AI-driven industrialization is “inevitable.” What is inevitable is the collapse of ecosystems when development ignores planetary boundaries. Evaluate digitalization not by promises of jobs or investment, but by its ecological footprint, social trade-offs, and long-term resilience. Digitalization must operate within ecological limits.
We thus urge concerned agencies, decision-makers, and duty bearers to:
Uphold Ecological Thresholds as a guide for all decisions on water, land, and energy use
Make food security a priority over industrial expansion
Make protection of our aquifer and water sources non-negotiable.
Let the Indigenous and local knowledge systems inform environmental governance
Protect Nature’s rights in both physical and digital domains
Subject all AI infrastructure to strict ecological accountability mechanisms
We call for the immediate suspension of the Pax Silica agreement until independent scientists, hydrologists, ecologists, and affected communities conduct a full and transparent review of its impacts. We demand that the government uphold the Rights of Nature as a guiding framework for all development decisions, especially those with unprecedented ecological footprints.
The Philippines must not trade its rivers, aquifers, farmland, and community well-being for the illusion of technological progress. True progress is measured by what remains standing, flowing, fertile, diverse, and alive.
We stand with the communities of Central Luzon. We stand with the ecosystems whose voices are often unheard. We stand for a future where digitalization serves life, not destroys it.
Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI)
