Photo Courtesy of Kabataan Partylist
The Philippine government should not put its best foot forward in welcoming the worst loser Donald Trump, who was rejected by the American electorate for joining Israel’s war against Iran and causing US gasoline and gas prices to skyrocket as well as punishing the Philippines with higher inflation. In fact, Trump should be kept out of the country to save the country from the plague that he brings along with soiled adult diapers that he would dump in Metro Manila.
American voters rejected Trump and his minions by voting for Democrats, who would control the House of Representatives and the Senate on January 2027. The Republicans were massacred for being dumb and following Trump, whose IQ, as the records of the New York Military Academy (NYMA) showed, was a moronic 73. The political upheaval was a revenge by a people that have been conned twice by the grifting Trump, whose idea of governance was borrowed from the Nazi enforcer Carl Schmitt, who promoted authoritarianism and justified the slaughter of Nazi opponents during the Kristallnacht massacre, or the Night of the Long Knives when as many as 1,000 Germans were killed by Nazi zealots. Schmitt worked in tandem with philosopher Martin Heidegger, the lover of Hannah Arendt. The only books that Trump reads are “Mein Kampf” and the blueprint of national socialism. No wonder Trump continues to fantasize that he can rule and rob by decree.
The Filipino people have no business pampering this lame-duck US president. More so, the Marcos Jr. regime should not go out of its way to create Potemkin villages along the route of Trump’s motorcade on Nov. 16, 2026. Yet, they are clearing the path and decorating the roads to appeal to the tacky taste of Trump, who is attending the 49th 2026 ASEAN Summit here from Nov. 16 to 18 and purportedly signing the mysterious Pax Silica accord between the Philippines and the US, which covers 1,620 hectares in Clark Freeport, including land inhabited by Aeta communities for a long time.
Pax Silica is as opaque as any deal cut by the US and it purportedly covers the manufacture of chips for military and civilian uses, assembly of microprocessors, establishment of data centers and possibly refining of rare earth elements (REEs) needed for batteries (the separation of REEs from each other requires more than a dozen operations) that is practically the monopoly of Chinese corporations since the US sold the technology more than three decades ago. The US is controlling Pax Silica and even demanded that its citizens who would eventually work at Clark be granted diplomatic status. This condition alone betrays the stupidity of the scheme and harks back to US exceptionalism.
The US has not acceded to UNCLOS, refused to ratify the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court (ICC) and wants out of various UN agencies. This alone exposes the character of the US as a rogue nation that is as lawless as Israel and as violent as Russia under the autocratic rule of Vladimir Putin. For Pax Silica, which was crafted only in December 2025, the US wants to make it appear that the scheme is an international one, with benefits accruing to those who sign up. Yet, an American firm has already disclosed the discovery of a lithium deposit in Arkansas and Texas while Indian startups have announced that they are developing technology that makes REEs for magnets and chip unnecessary.
There is also another sideshow, the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) that is supposed to overdevelop Regions 3 and 4 and bring in trillions of US dollars in investments. We have heard similar plans for a very long time, and the number of such plans is roughly equal to the number of economic planning secretaries the republic had. Not one of those various plans that promised tax holidays, rebates, reduced import tariffs and industrial peace through strike bans ever came to fruition. Pax Silica and LEC may also find their way to the steel cabinets and the museum of failures. The US operates on its self-interest, with one pundit reminding the rest of the world that the US is not a missionary. As the arch-enemy of world peace, Henry Kissinger, quipped: To be an enemy of the US is dangerous. To be a friend of the US is fatal. The French learned it, the Vietnamese came to know it and the Afghans who welcomed the Americans realized their folly later on.
The Makabayan bloc at the Lower House has already filed House Resolution No. 1593 opposing Trump’s visit and blasted the reported plan for him to sign the Pax Silica Initiative, which is the latest among the many lopsided agreements between the US and the Philippines. House Assistant Minority Leader and Kabataan Partylist Rep. Atty. Renee Co said: “A convicted warmongering racist, rapist, pedophile loser should not at all be welcome to step foot on our lands.” She noted that “the American people have themselves rejected Trump. Why should we be forced to accept him here? This administration has no reason to welcome the primary imperialist oppressor of our nation.” Makabayan condemned Philippine government’s “all-out on spending and preparations” for Trump’s visit.
For its part, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) condemned the Marcos Jr. government’s “Imeldific” cleanup drive to hide poverty from foreigners during the ASEAN summit. This requires sweeping out street vendors and urban poor residents from areas where ASEAN Summit dignitaries will pass through. It is nothing but a repeat of the Potemkin villages that Imelda Marcos and her minions created to whitewash the Filipino people’s deepening poverty. “No amount of fresh paint, swept sidewalks, or hidden human beings can erase the hunger, joblessness, and misery that this government has failed to address,” Bayan said. “We condemn the Marcos Jr. administration’s shameless attempt to prettify Manila for the cameras of foreign leaders while the poor are treated as eyesores to be swept away. The poverty of the people cannot be hidden by a cleanup drive,” it concluded. #
