This week's hot topic is Pax Silica, a major set of investments in Central Luzon that aim to transform 1,620 hectares of property, including former baselands, into an Artificial Intelligence-driven manufacturing hub that can employ thousands and ensure our participation in the supply chains of the future. It has its critics, who claim that it will displace people and harm local water and energy security. I would encourage you to examine the broad and minute details of claims on both sides, as well as the position of the Management Association of the Philippines.

Why would Pax Silica matter to us living outside of these proposed areas?

Leaving the minutiae of the specific Pax Silica arrangement aside for a moment, I believe that we in the Visayas and Mindanao can use this issue to understand more deeply why and how we need to attract investment in our own areas. For if we are to make the recently achieved Upper Middle Income Status real and inclusive for a greater number, (especially for us in the Philippine south) and ensure continuous growth and opportunity for the people over the long term, we need to do two things.

The first is to restart manufacturing more of the things we consume rather than import them. Building factories will enable the processing of many of the raw materials we produce, creating local value and jobs in the process. But this needs available cheap local renewable energy so that we can keep dependence on imported oil and coal to the bare minimum. This allows us to conserve more foreign exchange. But, we must make these products in a manner that is both sustainable and competitive to the point that we can beat the products of our competitors.

The second is that data centers will be necessary if we want to generate jobs and survive into the next decades. Digitalized private and government services, which we clamor for, cannot happen without data centers. Our large IT BPM sector needs to transition into bigger data processing. We already consume what data centers process, such as online purchases and transactions. In a few years, the world cannot turn without data centers. Would it be wrong to have data centers as local companies rather than outsourced foreign service providers?

Sustainable investment growth is needed for local economies to thrive. That said, to grow local economies, which are the people, we need investment. The Pax Silica debate shows us that preparation is vital if we are to adequately benefit from the entry of investment. We need to collectively prepare the skill base and invest in preparing property, water supply, and energy needs to ensure that investments can enter and operate without displacing us and our needs. Concretely, it means preparing the local community and ecosystem to reap the benefits of the investment, which include increased taxes for local governments, contracts for farmers supplying vegetables for company canteens, jobs for locals making uniforms, and for those producing the additional electricity needed. Preparing for these will already generate jobs and local income. Getting these investments will generate more

The July 23, 2026 Manila Bulletin editorial on Pax Silica could be said for any endeavor to bring in investments to other regions:“If the government, business, communities, and citizens work together with transparency and shared purpose, this project can demonstrate that the country’s greatest resource is not merely its minerals or strategic location—it is the Filipino people themselves, whose progress must always be the true measure of national success.”

I concur.