Artists and other advocates amplified their opposition against a US-led initiative through song.

On November 6, an artist group launched the anti-Pax Silica anthem “Get Off Our Lands” in a solidarity night filled with protest songs.

Produced by the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), the song was accompanied by a documentary music video featuring the Ayta community in Sitio Kalangitan, whose ancestral lands and natural resources are threatened by displacement and plunder. 

Through the song, CAP aimed to expose the false promises behind the Pax Silica and to condemn those in power who allowed it. 

Cultural performances and solidarity messages completed the program as part of the Trump Out campaign and the ‘12 Days of Protests’, building up the major protest actions on November 16 and 17. 

‘Ako Labay Ya Pax Silica’

Ayta elders also attended the solidarity night and expressed their strong rejection of Pax Silica, chanting “Ako Labay Ya Pax Silica!” (I don’t like Pax Silica!).

They led a community dance ritual to drive away “bad spirits,” which they associate with the Pax Silica Initiative and the impending visit of US President Donald Trump for the ASEAN Summit. 

Ayta Chieftain Nelson De Guzman countered the statement of Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) President Joshua Bingcang that no Indigenous community would be affected by the Pax Silica Initiative. He said that no proper consultation was conducted within their community. 

“They learned that they were being driven away from their land even before they knew about the project,” said Sandiwa Network project coordinator Gina Cambronero. 

“The Pax Silica will kill our future. We nurtured our lands. We cannot allow foreigners to claim it,” said Ayta Indigenous woman Tessie Sanchez. 

Sanchez told Bulatlat that planting rice, taro, and sweet potato helped support her seven children. She feared that the signing of the agreement could dry their water sources and take away their farmlands. 

“The ruling class used the term pax which meant peace. But is there peace in it? They use it as instruments for deception,” Cambronero said. 

“We just want peace in our tribe and in our land,” De Guzman said in the song’s documentary music video. 

Around 20,000 peasants and 15,000 Ayta could be reportedly displaced once its Artificial Intelligence hub was established on the 1,620 hectares of land in Tarlac. 

Land of the friendly

The anthem started by introducing the Philippines as a friendly Southeast Asian country that shares its homeland to everyone, even to foreign ones. 

The music video explained that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. volunteered to give the agricultural and ancestral lands in Tarlac to the United States to establish an Economic Security Zone. 

CAP said that the establishment of an Artificial Intelligence hub in Tarlac and the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) in Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas that claims of job creation and economic security are false promises. The group said that it only “prioritizes corporate profits and militarization, fueling war for the US benefit.”

“In the past years, we have always been at a disadvantage with US relations. There are already several trade agreements that only lead to our losses,” said Attorney Rey Cortez of National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL). 

Cortez added in a solidarity message that it only allowed for the United States to mine the country’s lands and determine how to exploit its resources. He described the government’s marketing of the country’s environment and sovereignty as unconstitutional, as only the Filipinos are allowed to explore the Philippines’ critical minerals. 

“Development should not be measured by the number of investments, infrastructure, and technology advancements. Its effect on the people, community, and environment must also be analysed,” said College of Social Work and Community Development Dean and CAP member Justin Nicolas. 

Lands dug, flattened, grabbed

Arthur Cadungon of CAP and writer of Get Off Our Lands said that the anthem is not just for the fight against the Pax Silica Initiative, but also a song of protest against the reclamation of Manila Bay, Laguna Lake, and Pasig River Expressway (PAREX). 

“An example of this is the Laguna Lake, which before sources at least 40% of protein food sources like mussels and freshwater fish tilapia,” said Environmental Advocates group Nilad coordinator Samantha Yzabel. 

She added that fishing has become difficult for the communities near Laguna Lake as the destruction of ecosystems and pollution worsens. She also stressed that the Manila Bay and Pasig River are being destroyed, while communities continue to be displaced and deprived of livelihood. 

Cadungon dedicated the song to the trees that were cut along the Quirino highway, and for the Filipinos who were drowned by flood and were neglected by the people in power. 

“This is also a fight with the courageous people of the Kasibu community in Nueva Vizcaya, around the nation, and other countries that are being stripped bare by imperialists,” Cadungon said. 

No peace, no prosperity

Artists and cultural workers strengthened their rejection of the Pax Silica that facilitates the use of Artificial Intelligence saying that it undermines human creativity. 

“Trump’s visit means taking away my workforce. It means building of AI hubs that would replace years of artist’s struggle in honing their crafts,” handcrafter Aila Bathan said. 

Just like the Ayta Indigenous Peoples and communities in Central Luzon, Bathan said that Pax Silica means death of their lives and livelihoods. 

“True prosperity promotes people’s dignity, strengthens communities, nurtures the environment, and advocates for overall well-being,” said Dean Nicolas, calling on the Filipinos to be critical and stand firm for social justice. 

CAP Secretary-General Edge Ungayuren emphasized that once farmers that cultivate the lands are threatened, even ordinary Filipinos are affected. “We believe that we must take a stand in this issue because it would kill our lands, bodies of water, farmers, and Indigenous Peoples. Our culture is rooted in our lands and bodies of water. If these will be gone, our culture will also be gone,”

CAP urged artists, cultural workers, and the public to use their art and the anti-Pax Silica anthem to take their resistance on the streets and get imperialists off the nation’s land. (AMU, DAA)