TEACHERS, professors and students gathered on Thursday at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City to condemn and oppose the United States-led Pax Silica initiative.
The rallyists also launched the Schools and Colleges Resist the Aggression and Plunder of Pax Silica (Scrap Pax Silica).
Michael Pante, lead initiator, told The Manila Times that Scrap Pax Silica is a unity statement signed by more than 500 education stakeholders, including college deans, faculty regents and union presidents “to demonstrate our strong objection to Pax Silica.”
Among the signatories are 11 deans and directors from different institutes and colleges of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman as well as UP faculty and students, Ateneo de Manila University and Philippine Normal University.
Pante said teachers’ groups such as the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Manila Public School Teachers’ Association also signed the statement.
Ramon Guillermo, one of Scrap Pax Silica lead initiators, stressed the need for genuine nation development, independent from the US.
“The Philippines will just be a pawn of the US’ technological war with China. Our resources will be siphoned off to create technologies that Filipinos will not directly benefit from,” Guillermo said.
“National industrialization is the only way for the Philippines to escape poverty and its dependence on the US,” he pointed out.
Ruby Bernardo, ACT head, said teachers and educators must help amplify the call for justice and accountability for the Aetas and farmers being dispossessed because of Pax Silica.
“If Pax Silica is truly for the benefit of the Philippines, why must people suffer first?” Bernardo said.
Scrap Pax Silica announced that the alliance would join the demonstrations against US President Donald Trump when he arrives in Manila for the 49th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit on Nov. 16 to 18.
The 1,620 hectares in Capas, Tarlac, chosen as the site for Pax Silica, is part of the ancestral domain of the Aeta Hanguey community.
Last July, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority notified the community to leave by December.
Scrap Pax Silica also questioned the lack of transparency from both the Philippine and US government about the details of the Pax Silica agreement.
“Up to now, no draft resolution or plan has been released by all parties,” it said.
The announcement of the Department of Trade and Industry that no Pax Silica agreement signing will be held during the 49th Asean Summit belies the continued opaqueness of the agreement, it said.
On Thursday, about 100 youth advocates staged a protest in front of Trump Tower in Makati City, calling for the deportation of the US president when he arrives for the Asean Summit.
Organized by Akbayan Youth, the protesters wore blonde wigs and business suits while carrying the slogan “Deport Trump!”
Akbayan Youth National Chairman Khylla Meneses said the Trump administration had subjected immigrant communities, including Filipinos, in the US to fear and harassment.
“Under Trump, migrants, people of color and minorities are the first targets of fear, abuse and deportation,” Meneses said.
“If Trump can deport people who have built their lives in America, Filipinos have every right to tell him he is not welcome here,” she added.
The group also expressed solidarity with Americans who voted against Republican Party candidates in the recent US midterm elections, saying the results showed that people could oppose a politics built on division, intolerance and attacks on democratic institutions.
“The consequences of Trump’s politics do not stop at America’s borders. Filipinos also bear the costs of his racism, militarism and disregard for other countries’ rights,” Meneses said.
She called for wider protests during Trump’s Manila visit, citing concerns over discrimination, armed conflicts and national sovereignty.
“Every war he stirs up makes fuel and food more expensive for ordinary Filipinos back home. Trump’s brand of leadership has no place in our country, and the youth will keep saying so, loud and clear,” Meneses said.
