Every package comes with a warning. So should every megaproject.
Almost every new pair of shoes comes with a small packet tucked inside the box: silica gel. Most of us barely notice it, except for the warning printed across the front:
Do Not Eat.
The packet is useful. It protects what is inside. Yet the warning exists because some mistakes cannot be undone.
Warnings are not written for bad products. They are written for products whose benefits do not eliminate their risks.
That warning came to mind when President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. highlighted the Pax Silica Industrial Hub in his State of the Nation Address. He described a US-led initiative, with artificial intelligence at its core, designed to bring quality jobs and position the Philippines within the global technology value chain.
It sounded like the future.
I understand why the President highlighted it. The Philippines must stop exporting raw materials and talent while importing the expensive technologies other countries build from them. We need stronger industries and better jobs.
Pax Silica may be exactly what the country needs.
Or it may become another reminder that governments often ask citizens to trust the promise before reading the fine print.
Scrutiny must begin now—not to reject the project, but because every megaproject deserves examination before celebration.
Read the Fine Print
Pax Silica is a US-led technology supply-chain initiative covering critical minerals, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, computing, and data infrastructure.
Its proposed Philippine industrial hub would occupy around 1,620 hectares in New Clark City.
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) projects that the development could generate more than 130,000 jobs, with later estimates reaching up to 190,000 direct jobs.
BCDA has cited an initial investment target of $10 billion, potentially rising to between $40 billion and $70 billion.
Those numbers deserve attention, not applause.
They are projections—not yet jobs created, factories operating, or investments delivered.
The first duty of government is not to persuade citizens that a project is exciting. It is to prove that it is sound.
A job exists when someone gets paid.
A factory exists when production starts.
Ribbon-cuttings are easy.
Results take years.
The Philippines has never lacked ambitious plans.
We have lacked the discipline to ask difficult questions before the excavators arrive.
The Land, the Water, and the Grid
BCDA says the proposed site is government-owned and rejects claims that 20,000 Aetas and farmers will be displaced. It maintains that only around 10 farmers would be directly affected and that the property is not covered by an ancestral-domain title.
Progressive and environmental groups dispute that account and warn of wider consequences for surrounding Aeta communities, farmers, and local livelihoods.
The competing claims require independent verification.
People and livelihoods do not become invisible simply because their claims are informal or undocumented.
Beyond land lies the physical footprint of advanced technology.
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Semiconductor manufacturing, computing infrastructure, and related industrial facilities require reliable electricity and substantial water resources.
BCDA says the development would rely primarily on harvested rainwater, supported by impounding, storage, treatment, and recycling facilities.
That is a plan.
The public still deserves to see the hydrological studies, projected demand, and drought assumptions behind it.
What happens during prolonged dry periods or El Niño?
If supply projections fall short, where will additional water come from—and whose demand will take priority?
Power deserves the same scrutiny.
How much electricity will the hub require at each stage of development?
Where will that additional capacity come from?
What new generation, transmission, and backup infrastructure will be needed—and who will pay for it?
The Philippines already contends with high electricity costs and recurring concerns about grid reliability. A project this ambitious should therefore come with a publicly disclosed power-supply plan—not merely assurances that demand can be met.
These are not anti-technology questions.
They are planning questions.
Hosting vs. Ownership
Governments announce.
Markets decide.
Even Intel's federally supported semiconductor project in Ohio has been delayed by years.
The first factory, originally expected to operate in 2025, is now scheduled to begin operations around 2030 or 2031 as Intel manages financial pressures, capital expenditure, and uncertain customer demand.
Industrial policy is never guaranteed simply because it is ambitious.
We cannot count jobs before investors arrive.
If the final Pax Silica arrangement includes public land, government-built infrastructure, power connections, or tax incentives, then Filipinos will be investing too.
What will we actually own when the dust settles?
Will Filipino engineers design chips—or merely assemble and package them?
Will our universities develop technology and intellectual property that remain in Filipino hands?
Or will we provide land, power, and labor while foreign firms retain the patents, data, and profits?
Hosting is not ownership.
History is full of countries that hosted the industries of the future without ever becoming part of them.
A country can employ thousands and still remain dependent.
Read the Warning
If government asks Filipinos to commit land, resources, and decades of trust, scrutiny is not an obstacle to progress.
It is part of it.
Show us the contracts.
Show us the safeguards.
Show us the environmental, water, and power-grid studies.
Show us the final package of public infrastructure, subsidies, and incentives.
Show us what taxpayers may be risking—and what the Philippines will own fifty years from now.
Progress is not measured by how quickly we announce the future.
It is measured by how carefully we build it.
Once the land is committed and the infrastructure built, there is no reset button.
The most expensive public mistakes rarely fail overnight.
They fail so slowly that governments are gone before the bill arrives.
Before we swallow the promise—
Read the warning.
Do Not Eat.
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