By Benjamin Cuaresma
MANILA — President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. assured the public Friday that foreign investors cannot exploit Philippine mineral resources without the approval of the Philippine government, amid concerns over the proposed Pax Silica initiative.
Marcos said the project could allow the Philippines to process its mineral resources locally instead of exporting them as raw ore.
He cited nickel as an example, saying the Philippines has the world’s second-largest nickel reserves but currently exports much of the resource in raw form for processing elsewhere.
“For example, nickel, let us say. The Philippines is the second largest reserve of nickel in the world. Right now, all that we are doing is we are exporting raw ore. And that is – then it is processed somewhere else,” Marcos said during the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines Presidential Luncheon.
“I cannot see how another country can come into the Philippines and, for example, exploit our minerals without the agreement of the Philippine government,” he added.
Marcos cited Indonesia’s policy of restricting raw-ore exports and requiring mineral processing to be undertaken within the country.
He said developing local processing centers would require adequate power supply and could involve commercial partnerships, government-to-government arrangements or a combination of both.
“To be able to do that, you have to develop the processing centers. You have to provide the power for that processing centers. And if you cannot do it yourself, you do it in partnership with either a purely commercial venture or a G2G [Government-to-Government] arrangement or some hybrid arrangement,” Marcos said.
He said such an approach would allow the Philippines to fully utilize its natural resources.
“And that is the Philippines fully exploiting our own treasure, our own national treasure, our own natural resources. So that is a specific example, but it applies to many, many of the other things that you fall under the category of our natural resources,” he said.
Also on Friday, Senate President Win Gatchalian expressed support for the proposed Pax Silica initiative, describing it as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for the Philippine economy while citing potential environmental and displacement concerns.
Gatchalian said the project could generate nearly 200,000 direct jobs, create around 800,000 job openings during its construction phase, and attract nearly $70 billion in investments.
He said these investments could instead be directed to countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia if the Philippines does not pursue the initiative.
Gatchalian, however, said his support comes with “conditions and caveats,” including compliance with Philippine and local laws, addressing the project’s water and electricity requirements, and protecting farmers and indigenous peoples from displacement.
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