Marco L. Valbuena, Chief Information Officer
Communist Party Of The Philippines
April 22, 2026
The
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) vigorously condemns the Marcos
regime for its reported plan to establish a 1,600-hectare Economic
Security Zone, and to grant the United States blanket extra-territorial
rights over this so-called industrial hub under the so-called Luzon
Economic Corridor. The Party calls on the Filipino people to unite and
take action to resist this gross sell-out and act of betrayal of
Philippine sovereignty.
Marcos
must be held to account for this brazen act of subservience to US
imperialists. The puppet regime is practically ceding part of the
country under the guise of an "economic security zone" that will be
operated under US common laws with diplomatic-style protection. The
initial lease will be for two years, during which it will operate tax
free, and is renewable for 99 years.
This
"economic zone" will practically be American territory in Luzon for a
century. Having ceded political and legal authority over this land, the
Philippines will not be able to stop the US from using this land for
military production, stockpiling or other non-economic purposes.
Reports
indicate that this will be established on public land at the former US
Clark Air Base in Pampanga, covering much of the ancestral land of the
Aetas. The plan to set up this US zone will likely force them out of
what is left of their ancestral land, as well as dispossess other
peasant communities of their homes and farms, both within and in
surrounding areas. Marcos haste to cede vast tracts of land to American
capitalists starkly contrasts to how millions of peasants remain
landless despite decades of labor and amortization payments.
The
project will give the US greater control of the country's key
resources. The declared aim of this project is for the US to secure
supply chains for critical minerals and other resources by moving
processing of Philippine exports away from China, under its so-called
Pax Silica initiative. The undeclared aim of the US is to have exclusive
control of the Philippines as part of its imperialist sphere of
influence and control.
This
planned economic zone takes away the country's ability to exercise an
independent foreign policy. It nullifies Philippine national interest,
and tethers Philippine foreign policy more tightly to the US, aligning
the country with US national interests, and pitting Filipinos against
American adversaries, especially China. It pulls the Philippines deeper
into the rising spiral of imperialist conflicts.
The
project is being touted as an "industrial hub," but has nothing to do
with developing the local economy. It will only tie the country down
further as a supplier of raw materials and cheap labor. It will also
likely reopen Pampanga's cities to the harmful presence of American
soldiers and nationals, which became a cesspool for prostitution, drugs
and other anti-social activities during the height of operations of the
US Clark Air Base.
The planned US
economic zone to extract and process crucial minerals is bound to
accelerate the destruction of the country's environment, as American
companies seek to extract greater amounts of nickel, copper and other
minerals critical for the production of semiconductors that serve as
crucial components of US jet fighters, drones, missiles and other modern
armaments for military aggression (such as the bombing of Iran and
assault on Venezuela), as well as industrial machinery and commercial
commodities.
Under its full
control, the US boasts that the economic zone will fully utilize
"artificial intelligence" to reduce the need for workers. Some
neoliberal economists who are cheering the project are raising false
hopes that this project will help alleviate Philippine unemployment or
help boost the local economy.
That
the "economic zone" will be under full US sovereignty underscores how
it will only reinforce the backward, agrarian and non-industrial state
of local production. It will only further relegate the country's status
as a semicolonial country. The US "economic security zone" will neither
bring development or security to the country.
The
Marcos puppet regime has allowed the US to place the Philippines under
its military domination, having allowed the US to set up more and more
military bases, facilities and sites across the country.
The
US imperialists under Trump are using their military stranglehold over
the country to make the claim that the Philippines belongs to the US and
not to China. The US uses the AFP and the puppet regime to silence and
suppress any and all who proclaim the Philippines as a sovereign nation,
belonging to no one but the Filipino people.
Amid
its economic crisis and strategic decline, the US has grown
increasingly desperate to seize more parts of the world to put under its
dominion. It will do so through military aggression or invasion, or in
the case of the Philippines, military coercion.
The
broad masses of the Filipino people must resist this Marcos scheme to
cede Philippine land to the US imperialists. They must exert all efforts
to frustrate this betrayal of Philippine sovereignty.
The
fight against this so-called US "economic security zone" is
inextricably linked to the struggle against US military intervention.
The Filipino people must intensify their struggle against increasing US
military presence and heighten their demand for the dismantling of all
US military bases and facilities, and the withdrawal of all American
troops and stockpiled weapons from the country.
*Attached is a pdf version of the statement
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