The biggest business chamber in Central Luzon has joined in the fray in a growing number of business organizations and government leaders that are supporting the Pax Silica initiative.
In backing up Pax Silica, the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (PamCham) said it “reaffirms its strong support for the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC)”, a bigger development project that stretches from Northern Luzon to Batangas.
In a statement, the 550-strong PamCham also said it welcomes the project as an “opportunity for Region III — Central Luzon — to host this national strategy.”
Earlier, Tarlac Governor Christian Halili has expressed support for the project. Corporate giants BDO, GLOBE, PLDT, Converge have also welcomed the project. The Pampanga Business Circle led by businessman Rene Romero is also supporting Pax Silica.
“With New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac proposed as the first AI-native industrial acceleration hub under Pax Silica, our region stands at the center of a rare and generational chance to move the Philippines up the global semiconductor and AI value chain,” PamCham stated.
“PamCham has noted, with concern, that this opportunity is now being debated in a climate of speculation. Questions raised in recent commentary — on water and power use, land conversion, community displacement, and the country’s place in the value chain — deserve serious answers. But they are too often being argued in the absence of the very people who will live with the outcome: the host communities, the workers, and the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of Central Luzon.”
“PamCham is aware that Pax Silica is led by the US Department of State under Under Secretary Jacob Helberg, with Japan and Australia among its founding signatories, and that it is distinct from the earlier LEC — a trilateral US-Japan-Philippines infrastructure partnership later widened, in May 2026, to Australia and seven other economies. The Philippines formally joined Pax Silica as its 13th signatory when Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo signed the Pax Silica Declaration in Washington, D.C. on April 16, 2026. We are likewise aware that the New Clark City hub’s terms are still being negotiated on a firm-to-firm basis between the Bases Conversion and Development Authority and prospective anchor investors, with no final framework agreement yet signed or made public. Many of the sharpest criticisms in circulation are directed at a framework still being negotiated, not at a settled outcome — the public conversation, and the negotiations themselves, would be better served by clarity on what is actually on the table.
When done right, PAMCHAM believes the LEC and Pax Silica can be truly transformative — a once-in-a-generation platform capable of delivering lasting national wealth, quality jobs, and a durable industrial upgrade for the Philippines. But that outcome is conditional, not automatic. It must be done right. Doing it right means the region’s business community, its workers, and its host communities help shape the terms while they are still being negotiated, not after the fact.”
PamCham stated that it has initiated the Regional Industry Position Paper on the LEC and Pax Silica which is now before the North Luzon Area Cluster of the PCCI for adoption.
“Central to our proposal is a Special Committee on the LEC and Pax Silica within Regional Development Council III (RDC III), tasked to actively monitor the Corridor’s progress on a fixed, regular cadence — tracking how much corridor-linked spending actually circulates within Central Luzon, harmonizing permitting and customs rules across freeports, and giving the sectors most directly affected an actual seat at the table when incentives, land-use approvals, and local-benefit conditions are decided.”
“PamCham’s position rests on a simple premise: the Philippines is not entering this arrangement empty-handed. Decades of experience in electronics assembly and testing, much of it built in this region, give the country genuine leverage to negotiate for technology transfer, supplier development, and workforce upgrading — the same trajectory that took the BPO sector from call centers to sophisticated global services.”
PamCham stated that it is calling on the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MACCII), the Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA), AmCham North Luzon, the PCCI chapters of Tarlac, Bataan, and Bulacan, and the region’s other business organizations “to join, refine, and co-own this Position Paper. A corridor that crosses provincial and freeport boundaries cannot be represented well by fragmented, chamber-by-chamber statements.”
“The business sector most directly affected owes the public and its government partners a single, credible voice: one that supports the Corridor’s promise while insisting, without apology, that it be built for the region that hosts it,” PamCham furthered.
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