Stand with Filipino Indigenous Peoples against Trump and Pax Silica!

Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific stands in solidarity with the Indigenous Ayta people of the Philippines as they embark on a lakbayan, a protest caravan and camp, converging with various social movements to protest the upcoming visit of US President Donald Trump during the 49th ASEAN Summit in Manila.

At the center of the protests is the Pax Silica initiative, a US-led multilateral strategic framework established in December 2025 to secure critical technology supply chains. A 1,619-hectare advanced manufacturing hub is set to rise in the middle of Ayta territory as Pax Silica’s pilot project in the municipality of Capas, Tarlac province. 

From this hub, an interconnected web of critical minerals mining and processing, energy development including potential nuclear power, transportation, logistics, and infrastructure  is expected to cut across huge swathes of the Ayta’s ancestral domains, threatening to displace and degrade their homes, farmlands, watersheds, key biodiversity areas, and sacred sites.

The Pax Silica framework anchors on a policy architecture that virtually covers the entirety of Philippine territory, and aggressively overrides the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples, the right to information and public participation of citizens, and various other environmental regulatory protections and safeguards.

Trump has made plain his intentions for Pax Silica when he said “we're reclaiming America's rightful place as the minerals superpower”, furthering that “critical minerals are the raw materials of American strength that power everything from advanced weaponry to automobiles.” This coupling of the critical minerals and technology value chain with the US military-industrial complex further imperils the Philippines and the Asia Pacific with risks of geopolitical conflict.

The government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has met the growing opposition against Pax Silica with repression and violence. Last July, Ayta communities in ground zero of the industrial hub were told by government personnel to leave their lands by December to give way to construction. Just recently, Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representatives to local governments are reportedly being dissuaded from attending discussions and gatherings critical of Pax Silica. 

Last September, police violently dispersed a protest against the Luzon Economic Corridor project linked to Pax Silica, leaving 27 activists injured, and eight people–including five paralegals–arrested and subsequently facing Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).

We call on the international community to bear witness to the impending confrontation of the Ayta people, together with the broader Philippine social and environmental justice movements, with Trump and his Pax Silica collaborators in the Philippine government. The Filipino people’s constitutional rights to freedom of assembly, speech, expression, and grievance and redress must be respected.

We call for international solidarity to the resounding calls to reject Pax Silica, uphold the Indigenous Peoples’ right to ancestral domain and self-determination, and assert a development pathway delinked from extractivism and global industrial aggression.#