24/07/2026
NO TO PAX SILICA!
Pax Silica is being created to accelerate large-scale mining and industrial activity across our lands, to provide vital resources to overseas industries and global technology chains. It calls itself progress, but it is based on plans which put the interests of corporations and international bodies before our environment and our people.
According to official statements from the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), the project will take over about 1,619 hectares or 4,000 acres of land in New Clark City, Tarlac β a huge space that will permanently change our territory and natural balance . What is also being kept in the shadows is that this initiative β which will host critical mineral processing, semiconductor manufacturing, and massive AI data centers β will consume enormous volumes of water daily. Semiconductor plants require millions of liters of ultra-pure water for production, while cooling systems for these facilities can draw millions of water every single day.
This comes at a time when the Philippines already faces a growing water crisis. We rely heavily on groundwater, yet extraction rates keep rising year by year, causing falling water tables, land subsidence, saltwater intrusion, and worsening quality.
This hits our farmers the hardest. Agriculture uses about 73% of our water, yet only two-thirds of our farmland has reliable irrigation . When Pax Silica diverts massive amounts of water to industries, less will be left for rice and vegetable fields. Farmers will struggle to water their crops; yields will drop, harvests will fail, and incomes will vanish. Many will be forced off their lands entirely β lands their families have tended and protected for generations. When industries can pay more, it is the ordinary people who lose access to what should be a basic right: water to live and to grow food.
We, as Youth for Environment in Schools Organization (YES-O) are for our COUNRTY. And we are for a future that does not sell out nature. We say NO to Pax Silicaβ not because we are opposed to growth, but because this much land, this much water, and these irreversible impacts are simply too high a price to pay. Expanding operations under this framework cause irreversible harm: they clear our forests, poison our water sources, erode our lands, and wipe out wildlife. Real development is not when we sacrifice our ecosystems and our food security for short-term gains that benefit only a few.
NO TO PAX SILICA!!
βοΈ: Allan P. Baldonado | YES -O VICE PRESIDENT
π¨βπ»: Maico Justin C. Peralta | YES-O PIO
