Under the rule of the imperialist degenerate US President Trump and its puppet Marcos Jr government, the Philippines is quickly being transformed into a forward military base of the United States. The latest agreement between the US and the Philippines to establish a 1,619-hectare “economic security zone” in Luzon under the Pax Silica initiative adds to the numerous other Yankee-led military-economic impositions that have no other objective but to fuel US imperialist war and dominance in the Asia Pacific.

The United States’ Pax Silica project aims to establish and connect supply chains around the world for artificial intelligence, semiconductors, so-called “critical” minerals, and other valuable technologies and resources. It is the latest effort of the US to wrestle and fight its imperialist rival China over strategic control over aspects of the global economy, and over the resources and labor in the region.

Two things are immediately clear. First, this initiative does not promise any form of industrialization that will benefit the Filipino people, but will merely expand on our country’s current character as a semi-processing and business process outsourcing hub. Pax Silica will ensure that US corporations monopolize the extraction of our natural resources (such as “critical” minerals and rare-earth elements) and exploitation of cheap labor here in our country.

Second, the timing can hardly be any better, as these new supply chains are crucial for all the current and upcoming attempts of the United States to wage wars of aggression in the region. The facilities to be introduced by Pax Silica will complement the growing number of US-owned or -introduced factories in the country that will produce ammunition, weapons, and other war materiel.

From the Subic ammunition factory to the Davao oil depot, and with US military-linked companies Moog Controls Corporation in Benguet, Collins Aerospace in Batangas, and Valar Atomics in Metro Manila, US imperialism is leaving a heavy bootprint on the Philippines as it tramples on our national economy and sovereignty.

Patriotic and revolutionary STEM professionals and students must reject these imperialist machinations, in part by exposing and opposing initiatives like Pax Silica and the operations of companies like Valar Atomics, Collins Aerospace, and Moog Controls Corporation. Championing our aspiration for national industrialization means resisting the impositions of a warmongering and desperate imperialism. We do not need machines and facilities that will perpetuate dependency to foreign powers, nor those that will produce weapons for the destruction of communities and ecosystems at home and abroad. We need self-sufficiency in food and energy, affordable social services, and a more sustainable economy as a whole.

It is our sincerity in our opposition to imperialism’s stranglehold on our economy that makes clear to us the only scientific solution to the crisis. To advance national industrialization and the genuine development of the Filipino people, we must wage revolutionary war against imperialism. As the current crisis makes this fact all the clearer, revolutionary scientists and engineers are tasked to maximize the situation to bring more and more members of the STEM sector closer to the revolution, and to use our skills and expertise concretely in service of the revolution.

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