A US-led push to relocate semiconductor processing away from China should not move forward without Filipinos first understanding what it would cost them, Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo said this week, weighing in on a proposal that has drawn national attention after Vice President Sara Duterte struggled to address it.
The former vice president, speaking to reporters on Monday, Aug. 3, framed the Pax Silica initiative as one piece of a wider strategy driven mainly by Washington and its allies to build processing capacity in countries outside China — the Philippines among them.
Robredo said the people behind the plan owe the public straight answers on several fronts before it advances: how much electricity and water the facilities would draw, what would happen to communities in the affected areas, what environmental damage might follow, and what economic returns the country could realistically expect.
Rather than take a side herself, she pressed Filipinos to examine the details on their own terms before landing on a position. She noted that the Church has made the same appeal for openness, arguing that no sound decision can be reached without a public that has been given the facts to participate meaningfully.
The renewed attention traces back to Duterte’s exchange with vloggers during her stop in The Hague, where she was pressed on reports of a planned US-led semiconductor and artificial intelligence partnership taking shape in the Philippines. Asked directly about the initiative, she first stumbled over its name before stating she was in no position to comment.
