The Office of the Vice President declined to state where Vice President Sara Duterte and her office stand on Pax Silica when the matter surfaced during House deliberations on the agency’s spending plan for 2027.
Representing Duterte at the September 2, 2026 hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations was OVP Undersecretary and chief-of-staff Zuleika Lopez, who told lawmakers she was cleared to field only those questions tied to the office’s proposed P785-million budget. The Vice President herself did not appear before the panel.
Kabataan Party-list Rep. Renee Co pressed the point, saying she raised the U.S.-led initiative precisely because no branch of government—the OVP included—has laid out a clear stance on it. According to the Manila Bulletin, Lopez responded that she had no authority to weigh in, adding only that requests of this kind are handled by the OVP’s Strategic Management Office and that some legislators had already sought the office’s comments.
Co pushed for the OVP to submit a formal position paper ahead of the plenary debates on the P7.2-trillion 2027 General Appropriations Bill. She argued that it was troubling for agencies to keep the public in the dark on a project carrying wide-ranging consequences, particularly for young Filipinos.
The exchange revived attention on a controversy that trailed Duterte through much of the summer. In a video the OVP itself released in late July, the Vice President was recorded being asked by supporters in The Hague what she made of Pax Silica. She appeared caught off guard, stumbled over the name, and answered, “I have no… I cannot comment on that.” The clip spread quickly online, with critics questioning how a sitting Vice President could seem unaware of an issue debated nationally for months.
Duterte later addressed the reaction at a July 29 gathering of supporters for her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, telling one organizer not to lose sleep over the criticism. As reported by Philstar, she said, “If they cannot respect a ‘no comment,’ you should not lose sleep over it. That is their problem. That is not your problem.”
Pax Silica traces back to December 2025, when Washington assembled a coalition of nations to shore up supply chains for semiconductors, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence while blunting China’s dominance in tech manufacturing. The Philippines signed on the following April. Its role centers on hosting an AI-focused industrial hub of roughly 1,600 hectares in New Clark City, Tarlac, land owned by the government and run by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
Backers have cast the site as the country’s entry point into the global AI economy, envisioning semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging, advanced manufacturing, and mineral processing on the grounds. The framework agreement covering the project is expected to be signed in November.
