Does Kabataan Partylist Really Understand Economics in Opposing Pax Silica?
Right now, I reserve the right to be critical of Kabataan Partylist. Kabataan Partylist is part of the Makabayan Bloc. I often get insults on Facebook, like saying, "Where's your mass base like Kabataan Partylist?" or "Have you rallied enough like Kabataan Partylist?" That's the "You Too Fallacy". As always, it becomes Makabayan Bloc's mindset to stick to what I call "Vietnam War Economics". The late Lee Kuan Yew would call their mentality a third-world mindset.
Here's a post by Kabataan Partylist on their Facebook page:
KABATAAN: Marcos Continues to Submit to Washington; Down with the Pax Silica Framework!
House Assistant Minority Leader and Kabataan Partylist Rep. Atty. Renee Co expressed fierce condemnation today over the impending November finalization of the predatory Pax Silica framework, calling it an “outright declaration of economic warfare and imperial exploitation against the Filipino people.”
With the Philippine government aggressively railroading the targeted November 2026 signing, the Marcos regime is explicitly locking the nation into a lopsided, unequal agreement that continuously reinforces a backward, import-dependent, export-oriented economic framework. “This desperation to rush the Pax Silica framework only serves as a trophy announcement for the 80th year of unequal PH-US relations during the ASEAN Summit,” Rep. Renee Co said.
“This predatory framework will only worsen and rationalize the environmental plunder and territorial strip-mining already happening across Central Luzon. To clear the path for this foreign hub, local farmers, agricultural workers, and Dumagat indigenous communities are actively being driven off their lands—completely dismantling local food security and weaponizing the state apparatus to serve foreign capital. The Marcos administration even has the nerve to grant multi-year rent holidays, sweeping tax exemptions, and guaranteed profit repatriations to wealthy assembly giants like Foxconn, while our youth are deprived of education, and our own food producers are starved, dispossessed, and sacrificed on the altar of foreign technological supremacy,” Rep. Renee Co emphasized.
“Instead of funding State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), building robust local industries, or bankrolling basic social services, Marcos Jr. chooses to bleed our national coffers dry to please his white masters and contribute to the genocidal, automated warfare efforts of the United States,” Rep. Renee added.
Rep. Renee further reiterates that the 4,000-acre enclave in New Clark City and the massive extraction of high-purity silica sand and quartz in Zambales and Tarlac are not a beacon of development, but a site of institutionalized economic bondage that reduces the Philippine sovereign territory into a cheap, disposable acceleration hub designed solely to fuel the Western military-industrial supply chain.
“Our country remains bound to a bureaucrat-capitalist system within a semi-feudal and semi-colonial framework. At the end of the day, our people do not see the fruits of their own labor. Our very own workers are forced to leave the country due to a severe lack of local opportunities,” Rep. Renee provided, exposing how the puppet administration systematically sells out the nation’s future.
“Our sovereignty is not and will never be for sale to the highest tech bidder!” Rep. Renee asserted.
Honestly, when it comes to Kabataan Partylist, I always want to take their claims with a grain of salt. The Makabayan Bloc, in general, tends to act as if we can just legislate economics. I offer without apology that no amount of insults like "gago", "tanga", 'bobo", "moron", etc. would ever change the laws of economics. Yes, that's right, I can get mad or even scream; people may succeed in irritating me with insults, but the laws of economics would remain the same.
Understanding Pax Silica before opening our mouths
Atty. Renee continues to act as if it's another invasion. Where did Atty. Renee Co get her sources? That's what I want to ask. The members of Bayan Muna are probably just sourcing each other, or perhaps from Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr., Atty. Christian Monsod, or, ridiculously, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. The CBCP has been described even by other Filipino Catholics as having the Padre Damaso School of Thought. As always, Atty. Renee needs to cite proof of her claims and provide her alternatives. Otherwise, Atty. Renee Co is just making noise.
Now, AVASANT gives us these details of Pax Silica:
What Is Pax Silica?
Pax Silica is a U.S.-led international initiative aimed at building secure, resilient technology supply chains across partner nations. The name draws from the Latin pax, meaning peace and stability, and silica, the compound refined into silicon — the foundational element in computer chips.
The initiative was formally launched at the inaugural Pax Silica Summit in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 2025, convened by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg. Signatories commit to reducing excessive dependencies on concentrated supply chains, coordinating investment in strategic technology stacks, and building trusted digital ecosystems including data centers, fiber-optic networks, and AI platforms (State Department Fact Sheet, December 11, 2025).
Since its launch, the coalition has grown steadily — from seven founding members including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Australia, to thirteen signatories as of April 2026, when the Philippines formally joined (Philippine News Agency).
Unlike domestic policies such as the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, which focus on reshoring fabrication capacity within the United States, Pax Silica is multilateral by design — distributing production across a network of trusted partner economies, each contributing complementary industrial and resource strengths. The U.S. has also signaled its intent to allocate $250 million through a new Pax Silica Fund to support critical minerals, infrastructure, and manufacturing across partner nations.
Why the Philippines?
The Philippines brings a combination of resource endowment, industrial capability, and strategic positioning that makes it a natural fit for the Pax Silica network.
On the minerals side, the Philippines is the fifth most mineralized country in the world, with an estimated $1 trillion in untapped reserves of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, and silver (Chambers and Partners, Mining 2026). It is the world’s second-largest nickel producer and, since Indonesia’s 2020 ban on raw ore exports, the world’s largest exporter of nickel ore (International Trade Administration). These minerals are critical inputs for batteries, semiconductors, and clean energy technologies — precisely the supply chains Pax Silica is designed to secure.
On the manufacturing side, the Philippines has an established semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. Electronic products consistently account for more than half of total Philippine merchandise exports — reaching $39.1 billion in 2024, or 53.4% of total exports, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department, February 2025). The country’s core strength lies in back-end semiconductor manufacturing — assembly, testing, and packaging — where it serves as a significant node in the global supply chain. Pax Silica could create a pathway to gradually expand into higher-value segments of the value chain over time.
The announcement also builds on existing bilateral and trilateral frameworks. The Luzon Economic Corridor, launched in April 2024 by the Philippines, the United States, and Japan under the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, is already coordinating investment in rail, ports, clean energy, and semiconductor supply chains across the Subic Bay–Clark–Manila–Batangas corridor. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency has approved a $3.8 million grant for the corridor’s anchor rail project, and the State Department has allocated an additional $15 million to support private sector development (Manila Standard; International Trade Administration).
Geographically, Luzon sits at the center of Indo-Pacific trade routes, offering proximity to established manufacturing corridors in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan — reinforcing the Philippines’ potential role not just as a resource supplier, but as a production node within the broader Pax Silica network.
Pax Silica is a business opportunity. However, Kabataan Partylist operates with what I call the Vietnam War mindset. Their mindset was stated by KPL Laguna's blog:
It believes that the Philippines, as a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, is plagued by a system which allows foreign and big business interests to dominate, while the majority of our countrymen are left poor and hungry. We are living in a society where foreign subservience, peasant landlessness, and rampant corruption are the top three ills. To that end, Kabataan Party-list strives to galvanize the Filipino youth in upholding, protecting, and defending our interests and in harnessing our full potential as a sector.
In short, Kabataan Partylist really has a lot to learn about business and economics.
What about Vietnam's apparent "non-involvement" in Pax Silica?
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| Vietnam National University, Hanoi |
Vietnam’s Strategy: Niche Superpower Ambitions and Bamboo DiplomacyThough the country possesses one of the world’s largest rare-earth reserves, Vietnam was not among the governments participating in the U.S.-convened Critical Minerals Ministerial. This absence raises an intriguing question: was Vietnam not invited, or did it choose not to participate?Either possibility points to the same underlying issue. Hanoi appears to be pursuing a different, more autonomous strategy for its mineral resources.Rather than focusing primarily on integrating into Western supply chain alliances, Vietnam has increasingly emphasized its desire to achieve domestic industrial upgrading and, as a result, strategic autonomy. A key example is its December 2025 decision to entrench the export ban of unprocessed rare earths, while encouraging investment in refining and downstream manufacturing inside the country.The policy is part of its broader economic statecraft strategy. Vietnam’s rare earth export restrictions illustrate how some middle powers are using sanctions (e.g, export bans) and industrial policy tools (e.g., investment in domestic production capabilities) to ensure autonomy and bolster economic development. In Vietnam’s own case, the country is also increasingly placing rare earth in a security light. A recent discussion in its law-making National Assembly suggested rare earth mining in certain areas be vetted by the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security. Mining has historically been under the sole remit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.Vietnam’s approach also reflects a growing desire of middle powers to cultivate their “niche superpowers.” Rather than dominating entire industries, some countries achieve global influence by specializing in highly specific segments of strategic supply chains. Taiwan’s dominance in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, referred to as a “silicon shield,” is the most famous example. Finland’s leadership in icebreaker shipbuilding is another.Hanoi is investing in the hopes that rare earth refining could become Vietnam’s equivalent niche. Rare earth refining would be essential on its own, and also linked to upgrading in value-added activities like semiconductors. See, for example, recent industrial linkages referenced in talks with the EU.Notably, Vietnam appears willing to deepen industrial cooperation with partners like the U.S. and the EU while still maintaining control over its mineral resources. Vietnam has a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the United States, which was signed in 2023, but is not neatly aligning in recent critical minerals partnerships.This strategy reflects Vietnam’s long-standing diplomatic approach, often described as “bamboo diplomacy.” Like bamboo, Vietnam’s foreign policy is designed to be flexible and resilient, bending with geopolitical winds without breaking.This way, the country maintains productive economic ties with China (and Russia) while simultaneously strengthening partnerships with the United States, Japan, and Europe. Vietnam remains open to foreign investment in exploration, mining, and refining projects, as it has welcomed from Japan since 2010, but on terms that support its domestic industrial upgrading.But, by focusing on its own rare earth capabilities rather than the U.S.-led coalitions, Vietnam aims to enhance its economic leverage without formally aligning with any geopolitical bloc.
As I read through this one, Atty. Renee may have failed to look at how Vietnam strategically uses FDI. Atty. Renee could've said, "The Philippines should practice bamboo diplomacy, allow FDIs to operate, but we must put restrictions that make sure these businesses benefit the Philippines." Instead, Kabataan Partylist may have ignored the way Vietnam truly developed. Vietnam didn't enrich itself first before allowing FDIs or have its economic restrictions written within the constitution. Vietnam follows the middle road of "We allow FDIs to own 100% of their shares. However, they must comply with Vietnamese restrictions such as payment of taxes, labor laws, and the like!"
In my opinion, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos could've taken the bamboo diplomacy path like Vietnam did. I want to take the middle road that the Philippines can allow 100% FDI share ownership while retaining control through reasonable restrictions.
