Why Doesn’t AKBAYAN Oppose Pax Silica?

The visit of U.S. President Donald Trump this month has raised fears that the crisis-ridden government of Bongbong Marcos will sign over parts of Philippine territory, including control of the country’s mineral resources, in a desperate bid for U.S. investment and development assistance. Last July, Marcos announced that his government joined Pax Silica, the U.S.-led initiative to beat China’s pre-eminent position in the global supply chain for semiconductors and artificial intelligence. The revelation of Trump’s demand for extra-territorial rights over a 1,620-hectare flagship project in Central Luzon set off a chorus of criticism and protest from the media, churches and environmental groups.

Small farmers and indigenous Ayta in Tarlac gathered to denounce the government plan to take over their farms and traditional sites, while scores of anti-Pax Silica demonstrators clashed with police in the posh Bonifacio Global City district. With both the national patrimony and the rights of the indigenous Ayta at stake, one would think a long-established party like AKBAYAN, which once engaged in scuffles with the police and touted itself as a party of socialist governance, would come and rally the masses to fight imperialism. So why hasn’t AKBAYAN come out against Pax Silica?

Silence over EDCA, Silence over Pax Silica

Pax Silica is the global alliance to reinforce U.S. hegemony over the supply chain of AI, semiconductors, critical minerals and advanced manufacturing. It is integral to the U.S. military-industrial build-up against China. Senator Risa Hontiveros, Party President Rafaela David and labor leader Josua Mata are among the most vocal in their denunciation of China (which does not have a military presence within Philippine territorial boundaries). The country which has 700 bases around the world, including nine EDCA sites in the Philippines? None other than the United States!

Does AKBAYAN demand an end to American access to these bases or the immediate abrogation of Visiting Forces Agreements with Japan and Australia, both Pax Silica partners? Their silence is deafening. With Risa, Paeng and Josua at the helm, AKBAYAN is acting as an instrument of U.S. policy in the Philippines. Did Paeng, co-convener of Atin Ito, bother to protest when the U.S. deployed Typhon missile systems in the Philippines? You’d expect that from leaders who pride themselves as great proponents of peace in the region. Instead, Paeng and other AKBAYAN leaders got busy providing cover for the missile deployment with a live concert broadcast aboard the Atin Ito flotilla sailing in the contested waters!

If you consider yourself an authentic socialist kahanay of AKBAYAN, act now. Your duty is not to preserve the U.S.-Philippines military alliance but to defend the nation against U.S. designs to turn the country into their military fortress. Stop the pro-U.S. party leadership from dishonoring the banner of socialism by hitching AKBAYAN to U.S. goals just so Risa Hontiveros or the party list ticket can improve their electoral fortunes in 2028. Unless you fight imperialist enslavement, you will never win the support of the masses of the oppressed.

Re-Orient the Party, Fight U.S. Imperialism!

AKBAYAN leaders buy the blackmail by Marcos, the liberal establishment and Western-funded NGOs that in order to create jobs and promote development it is necessary to capitulate to the demands of foreign finance capital. Why should anyone believe in Marcos or the liberals anyway? The strategy of allowing unhindered imperialist penetration of the strategic sectors of the economy and giving a long list of perks to the capitalist oligarchs has led to the present disaster.

Canceling the foreign debt and reversing the deregulation of the petroleum industry and power generation sector can be our first steps towards national industrialization. But the AKBAYAN Party leadership wants to be respected by the same circles as NGOs and funding partners (hello Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) associated with the Makati Business Club elite and the imperialists, so while Risa or Paeng might issue a criticism or two, they will only play by the rules of the status quo and won’t dare challenge Pax Silica or privatization beyond pleas for Congressional review. The present AKBAYAN leadership and its Party List deputies in Congress make grand attempts to reform the grave excesses while protecting the system. As long as AKBAYAN does not fight to throw out the imperialists and the oligarchs, all of the social programs and community initiatives that kahanays founded and work for are rendered meaningless.

It is encouraging to hear that comrades in the Akbayan Youth Cavite provincial chapter have taken the lead and are waging a campaign within the youth to win over other kahanay to shut down Pax Silica. AKBAYAN socialists need to fight for a radical reorientation of the party, the youth organization and kahanays in labor. What is needed is a new strategy, one that builds an anti-imperialist movement capable of rousing the nation to its feet and bringing the conglomerates under the control of the working people so the resources will benefit the popular masses instead of just enriching the ultra-bilyonaryos like Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp., the Ayalas, the Sy-blings etc. and their foreign business partners.

Padayon for Socialist, Working Class Leadership!

Last year’s anti-corruption mass movement against the Marcos/Duterte oligarchy was restrained, divided then dissipated because not only did the AKBAYAN Party leadership, but also their counterparts in the National Democrats, Partido Lakas ng Masa and other tendencies got busy getting into the good graces of generals, politicians, cardinals, business leaders and whatnot, who had no intention of taking down the regime.

If the socialist left will take the lead in waging an independent struggle against the Marcos regime, his liberal enablers and his imperialist godfathers, they will become a magnet for the aspirations of the masses, including the worker and urban poor base of support of the right-wing Dutertista opposition. What is missing is a sharp political fight within the ranks of AKBAYAN (and other left-wing and socialist tendencies) against those elements that hitch themselves to the bourgeois liberals and their conciliators who think you can rely on Congressional maneuvers to rein in the imperialists.

In order to gain political influence and authority among the oppressed, we have to show that only socialist-oriented anti-imperialists can provide solutions to achieve the national, social and democratic aspirations of the masses of workers, peasants, women and other oppressed. This requires struggle against the illusions of the masses in the competing factions of the vicious Philippine oligarchy, whether that be the imperialist-backed Marcos dynasty, the bourgeois liberal lady bosses like pro-U.S. Leni Robredo, or the reactionary Duterte political clan (already being groomed as the reserve horse of U.S. imperialism by Trump envoy Lee Lipton).

A socialist, working class-oriented leadership is needed to win. We call on all socialists, especially in the AKBAYAN left wing to support the fight to build that leadership.