The groups rejected the Luzon Economic Corridor, calling it a “massive sellout” of Philippine patrimony.

By Wendyl Geronimo*Davao Today*

MANILA – “The Philippines is not for sale!”

Progressive groups led by the Bagong Alvansang Makabayan (Bayan) and International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS) Philippines on Thursday expressed their strong condemnation as the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) Investment Forum inaugurated on Thursday, September 10 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at the Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.

The group said the initiative is a threat to Philippine sovereignty and a vehicle for foreign control over the country’s resources.

In a joint statement, the groups rejected the LEC, calling it a “massive sellout” of Philippine patrimony, and accused the government of allowing foreign interests to shape the country’s infrastructure and economic development agenda.

Sponsored by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), the event brought together about 600 international investors, industry leaders, project developers, and government officials to discuss investment opportunities within the  Subic-Clark-Manila-Batangas corridor.

LEC and Pax Silica

Bayan and ILPS argued that the corridor would not lead to genuine industrialization but instead create profit opportunities for foreign companies and local business interests. The groups questioned the prominent role of the U.S. government in promoting the initiative, noting that the USTDA is sponsoring and organizing the investment forum

According to the USTDA, the LEC is a trilateral initiative involving the Philippines, the United States, and Japan aimed at mobilizing investments in transportation, logistics, energy, digital infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing. The agency said the corridor seeks to strengthen connectivity and economic growth across Luzon

The groups also cited the proposed 232-kilometer Subic-Clark-Manila-Batangas Freight Railway, which they said would primarily serve foreign commercial interests. Corridor documents identify the freight railway as a key transport project linking major economic hubs in Luzon.

Among the projects criticized by the groups was the proposed Pax Silica Economic Security Zone, which they claimed could accelerate critical mineral extraction and affect Indigenous and agricultural communities.

Bayan and ILPS further alleged that the corridor forms part of a broader U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific and raised concerns over what they described as the possible dual-use nature of infrastructure projects located near strategic transportation and military facilities.

The groups said several corridor projects could support both commercial and defense-related activities, citing developments in Subic and other strategic locations. Corridor materials show that the LEC connects key economic centers, ports, airports, and transport networks across Subic, Clark, Manila, and Batangas.

Reject foreign-led ‘development’

Bayan and ILPS urged the public to reject the corridor, arguing that national development should remain under Filipino control and not be driven by foreign governments or investors. The groups also criticized recent government policies that they said were designed to attract more foreign investment and expand critical mineral projects associated with the corridor.

“Do not sell the Philippines to foreigners. The Philippines belongs to Filipinos. If the government is to undertake projects or programs for industrialization, these should be geared toward national industrialization by Filipinos and for Filipinos, not for foreign interests.,” said former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino, now chairperson of Bayan, during the protest.

For Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the LEC is being presented as “economic development” by Ferdinand Marcos administration, but in reality, the group said it is “really a corridor for imperialist profit and war.”

“Filipino land, resources and infrastructure are being prepared to serve foreign corporations, global supply chains and the strategic military interests of the United States,” said KMP Chairperson Danilo ‘Ka Daning’ Ramos in a statement.

Ramos further said that the ports, airports, railways, fuel facilities and telecommunications infrastructure being built under the LEC are not simply economic facilities.

“Many are dual-use infrastructure that can facilitate the movement of military equipment, personnel and supplies. This is strategic infrastructure for US power projection in the region,” he said.

Energy projects under LEC include U.S.-backed nuclear cooperation, hydropower, fuel storage facilities and a 72-kilometer pipeline connecting Subic, Olongapo and Basa Air Base in Pampanga.

KMP added that digital infrastructure, including submarine fiber-optic cables, fiber networks, 5G and Open RAN technologies, is likewise being promoted alongside data centers and advanced manufacturing.

“These projects are integrating the Philippines into US-led supply chains in semiconductors, technology and defense manufacturing. This is not genuine national industrialization. It is a foreign-dictated pseudo-development where domestic land, labor and resources are subordinated to the needs of imperialist capital,” Ramos said.

KMP also pointed to the modernization of the Subic shipyard, the Agila Subic Multi-use Facility owned by US private equity firm Cerberus Capital, and the expansion of Collins Aerospace, a unit of US defense giant RTX, as examples of the growing integration of Philippine facilities into US-linked defense and logistics networks.

The peasant group also warned that the LEC’s expansion will place further pressure on agricultural lands, particularly in Central Luzon, where industrial estates, logistics hubs, energy projects and other infrastructure are rapidly expanding.

“Central Luzon is among our country’s most important food-producing regions, yet its agricultural lands are increasingly being treated as a real estate hub for investors. Farmers lose land while foreign corporations and local big businesses gain access to strategic assets and government incentives,” Ramos said.

KMP demanded full disclosure of all LEC projects, investors, financing arrangements, land requirements, government incentives and military or dual-use components.

“We need genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization, not foreign-dictated projects. We need full support for food production, decent and secure jobs and genuine national development, not a corridor for imperialist profit, land grabbing and war,” Ramos said.

Violent dispersal

Meanwhile, tensions flared outside the venue of the investors’ forum at the posh Bonifacio Global City between the activists and the police where 29 activists sustained injuries after they were dispersed by the police.

At least five of the protesters were arrested, including the paralegal assistants who were doing human rights work during the protest. Among those detained were Dana Juliano, Mara Peralta, RC Placido, Jona Yang and Kenneth Castor.

At least 27 protesters were also injured. The groups alleged that police officers shoved, dragged and struck demonstrators with riot shields and batons while clearing the protest area.

Photos courtesy of Kalikasan Peoples Network for the Environment

Human rights group Karapatan denounced the violent dispersal by the police and demanded the immediate release of the five. In a statement, the group said that the police were clearly prepared to quell the protest, armed with shields and nightsticks.

“They singled out three paralegals who were telling the police not to manhandle or arrest protesters. They also arbitrarily held and arrested two other paralegals who voluntarily went to the police station to assist those who had been arrested,” the group said, demanding that they be arrested as they are only doing their work as human rights defenders.

Karapatan said that the protest was legitimate and just.

“The protesters’ call to junk the Pax Silica initiative in the Philippines is more than justified, given its impacts on the lives, livelihoods, environment, and rights of the Filipino people. Filipinos have every right to demand the scrapping of a project that serves US interests and merely turns the Philippines into a gateway for US economic and militarist power in the region,” the group said.

The group said that the violent dispersal and the arrest of the paralegals further expose “the country’s police force as acting like private security guards for foreign corporations or mercenaries for the US, Philippine, and Japanese governments.”

“Shame on Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is selling the Philippines to foreign interests at the expense of the people’s rights, national sovereignty, and their rights to land and life,” Karapatan said. (With reports from Anne Marxze Umil) (Republished by Bulatlat) (davaotoday.com)

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