“The gig economy is empowerment. This new business paradigm empowers individuals to better shape their own destiny and leverages their existing assets to their benefit.”
—John McAfee
By Alex P. Vidal
THERE are those who believe Pax Silica is a good idea for the Philippine economy.
But many Filipinos think the Philippines isn’t yet ready for Pax Silica initiative, which has a core similarity with the data centers in New York in terms of their shared focus on the geopolitics, heavy industrialization, and resource demands of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In iPetitions started by Johanna Mangrubang, those who are against Pax Silica expressed fears of long-term consequences and concern for environment:
We call on our President and leaders to prioritize the Filipino people, our natural environment, and our long-term future.
No to any development that ignores the voices of the Filipino people. Our country’s future should not be decided without the voices of its people.
We support progress, but progress must protect our natural environment, our resources, and our communities. We demand transparency, accountability, and a future where development truly benefits all Filipinos, not only those with power and influence. No to pax silica!
“We, the people of this country, deserve an environment that is safe, healthy, and protected for future generations. Pax Silica is nowhere near any of that. No project is worth risking our communities, our water, and our natural resources,” protested a petitioner, Denisse Baylon.
“I stand with the community in calling for the Protection of our environment and future generations. Our health, water, and natural resources should come before commercial interests,” declared another petitioner, Charmaine Quito.
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As this developed in the Philippines, New York became the first U.S. state on July 14 to halt construction of large new data centers, imposing a one-year moratorium as concerns grow that the facilities driving the artificial-intelligence boom are raising power costs, straining water supplies and burdening local communities.
As a result, it positions New York at the forefront of a growing national debate over how to manage the infrastructure needed to support AI.
While technology companies are racing to build new data centers, lawmakers and regulators in dozens of states are weighing measures to limit their effect on electricity grids, utility bills and local communities.
The construction ban will reportedly apply to data centers that use 50 megawatts or more of power.
During the moratorium, the governor’s office reported that the state's Department of Environmental Conservation will not issue any discretionary permits not already deemed complete.
The expansion of data centers in the United States is driving up power demand—and electricity bills— in large swaths of the country, drawing local and political backlash.
Only one in three Americans approve of the fast pace of data-center construction and most would oppose building one in their own community, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.
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New York State currently has more than 130 data centers, according to Data Center Map, compared with more than 600 in Virginia and about 500 in Texas.
Pax Silica is a U.S. State Department-led economic framework designed to secure global AI supply chains, semiconductors, and trusted computing infrastructure and New York's local digital landscape is adjusting to the massive real-world impact of those exact systems, at the same time.
The international pact explicitly targets securing the entire AI ecosystem and coordinates global efforts to build "trusted information networks," which directly include subsea cables, fiber-optic lines, and data centers.
Pax Silica, mentioned by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in his recent State of the Nation Address (SONA), is planned for New Clark City in Tarlac province, located on Luzon Island within the Luzon Economic Corridor. It is about 1,600 to 1,619 hectares (around 4,000 acres) designated as an Economic Security Zone in Central Luzon, part of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority development area.
Its prime purpose is a high-tech hub focused on artificial intelligence, microchips, and semiconductor manufacturing supply chains.
New York functions as a primary physical hub for these exact networks, hosting massive data centers that process the AI workloads, models, and tokens that Pax Silica aims to protect.
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THE DEVIL’S OTHER NAME. As a habit and as part of personal hygiene, taking a bath twice a day especially during summer is a must and should be inviolable.
To prevent sunburn when collecting recycled wastes, we must protect our skin with lotion. A regular perfume is also necessary.
I believe that cleaning up is more vital than dressing up. The most important thing in the world is to get rid of the waste. The salvation of the office is the waste basket.
The salvation of the home is the scrubbing brush. The salvation of the body is efficient elimination. The salvation of the soul is keeping dirt out of the imagination.
In the house of death there is the smell of cologne, in the hospital there is the odor of disinfectant.
Because the cleansing processes of life are secret, private and not to be mentioned or witnessed they are all the more sacredly essential.
The bacilli of Nature are the wrath of God that waits for the unclean. The devil’s other name is Dirt.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)
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