From November 16 to 18, US President Donald Trump will visit the Philippines to attend the ASEAN Summit. In a display of servility to the US, the government of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is rolling out the red carpet, spending billions of pesos on lavish preparations while ordinary Filipinos struggle with poverty, rising prices, and economic hardship. In true “Imeldific” fashion, authorities are clearing Manila’s streets of vendors and urban poor communities to conceal poverty from visiting dignitaries. Worse, they have imposed a ban on protests, suppressing constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.
More alarming is the prospect of signing the lopsided Pax Silica agreement during Trump’s visit. Designed to secure US access to critical technology supply chains, including artificial intelligence and critical minerals, the agreement places Philippine resources and sovereignty at the service of US strategic interests amid its rivalry with China.
Pax Silica threatens to intensify large-scale mining, resource extraction, and data center development, resulting in environmental destruction and the displacement of Indigenous Peoples and farmers. It will further entrench an export-oriented, import-dependent, foreign investment-led, and debt-driven economy—a neoliberal model that has deepened poverty and inequality. It also perpetuates US political, economic, and military domination over the Philippines.
Scripture declares: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). Development must never come at the expense of people’s rights to land, justice, peace, and self-determination.
In this spirit, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines calls for the rejection of Pax Silica and opposes Trump’s visit and the Marcos government’s lavish welcome. We urge churches and people of faith to stand against economic projects driven by great-power rivalry that promote land dispossession, environmental destruction, resource plunder, militarization, and the surrender of national sovereignty to foreign interests.
We likewise call on ASEAN leaders to reject market-centered, foreign investment-led policies that sacrifice people’s welfare, natural resources, and national independence. Instead, ASEAN must uphold people’s rights, respect national sovereignty, and pursue peace, mutuality, and right relationships as the foundations of international cooperation.
For Christ has set us free. Let us stand firm against every yoke of oppression and domination. #
Signed and issued on this day, 12th of November 2026.
(Sgd.) The Most Rev. Brent Harry W. Alawas
Chairperson
(Sgd.) Bishop Joseph G. Agpaoa
Vice Chairperson for Men
(Sgd.) Ms. Jennifer Ferariza-Meneses
Vice-Chairperson for Women
(Sgd.) Rev. Jon Dave A. Angeles
Vice Chairperson for Youth
(Sgd.) Rev. Leonardo R. Morada
Corporate Treasurer
(Sgd.) Ms. Minnie Anne Mata-Calub
General Secretary
