Photo Courtesy: Presidential Communications Office
The Luzon Economic Corridor and Pax Silica Initiative are being marketed as engines of “economic development” and “technological integration.” Yet behind the polished rhetoric lies a militarist reality: these projects are staging grounds for U.S. war production and supply chain integration, effectively positioning the Philippines as a logistics hub for endless wars, according to Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) president Renato Reyes Jr.
Reyes underscored that the 2026 Luzon Economic Corridor Investment Forum participant list reads less like a roster of development partners and more like a catalogue of the global military‑industrial complex:
– AeroVironment — drones and tactical missiles.
– Versar Global Solutions — warzone infrastructure and base operations.
– Relyant Global — combat support and logistics.
– U.S. Indo‑Pacific Command — direct military command presence.
– Toll Government and Defence — defense supply chain logistics.
– Fincantieri — naval combatants and submarines.
– Dow Chemical Philippines — wartime legacy of napalm and Agent Orange, now aerospace components.
– Radisys Corporation — telecom infrastructure tied to Lockheed Martin’s 5G military systems.
– Cerberus Capital Management — private equity with deep stakes in military training and logistics.
“This is not development. It is militarization disguised as modernization. The Philippines is being positioned as a cog in the machinery of U.S. war materiel — our land, labor, and resources reduced to collateral for foreign military supply chains,” Reyes declared.
He warned that the promise of jobs and infrastructure cannot outweigh the reality of entanglement in global militarism. To acquiesce, he argued, is to surrender sovereignty and trade the nation’s future for the profits of defense contractors.
Bottom line: The Philippines is being positioned as a production and logistics hub for U.S. war materiel. “We reject turning our country, land, and resources into collateral for foreign military supply chains,” Reyes concluded. # (ZIA LUNA)
