By Kristine Villanueva

NEW YORK CITY — More than 200 Filipinos and allies from across the Northeastern United States rallied in front of the Philippine Consulate General and Cerberus Capital Management on Monday, condemning President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) and criticizing his administration’s deepening military and economic ties with the US government.

The protesters also opposed Pax Silica, an alliance of US-aligned countries to set up a global supply chain for the development of artificial intelligence technology, including high-technology applications to warfare. 

The Philippines’ inclusion in Pax Silica entailed setting up an AI data center hub in New Clark City, Tarlac, under the Luzon Economic Corridor. The proposed hub will be under the Cerberus Capital Management, which acquired the former Hanjin shipyard in Subic Bay.

Led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-USA, Malaya Movement USA, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP-US), the protest, dubbed the People’s State of the Nation Address (PSONA), was organized in response to Marcos’ SONA, in which he said US diplomatic and military partnerships would help strengthen the Philippine economy.

“The selling out of Philippine sovereignty through Pax Silica is a most atrocious act of selling out of Philippine land to foreign powers. Marcos asks for the international community to invest in the Filipino people; however, we know that he serves only the elite and corrupt bureaucrats whose only allegiance is to themselves,” said Lano Echavarria of Malaya Northeast.

In May, Jacob Helberg, the US under secretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment, visited the New Clark City site and said that more than a dozen US companies were exploring investments in the hub.

During a recent visit to Manila, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated the Trump administration’s commitment to continued defense cooperation with the Philippines, including the supposed modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Rubio also reiterated the US commitment to supporting the Luzon Economic Corridor. Protesters argued that these developments further entrench US influence over Philippine economic and security policy.

While Marcos said in his SONA that the hub would “accelerate industrial competitiveness and revitalize [the] economy,” protesters argued that the project would devastate the environment and displace Indigenous Aeta communities, as well as fisherfolk and farmers in the area.

They also pointed to Marcos’ amendment of the Investors’ Lease Act last year, which allows foreign investors to lease land for up to 99 years. They added that the planned facility would place additional pressure on power and water resources amid the country’s ongoing energy challenges.

“This initiative plans to turn rich Filipino land—land that could feed the people—into an AI hub. Can women feed their children semiconductors?” said Mara of Gabriela New York.

Speakers also criticized what they described as the “false friendship” between the Philippines and the United States, pointing to expanded military cooperation between the two countries.

While Marcos emphasized Philippine sovereignty in his SONA, critics argued that US military agreements have instead heightened geopolitical tensions between the United States and China while putting Filipinos at greater risk.

They also cited Cerberus Capital Management’s acquisition of the former Hanjin shipyard in Subic Bay, which they said has paved the way for the area’s remilitarization through defense contracts with the US and Philippine militaries, including a $27.7-million combat systems contract and a prospective submarine acquisition package worth more than $1 billion involving South Korean defense company Hanwha.

“[Marcos claims] that it’s to stop China from encroaching on the Philippines, to protect the Filipino people, to protect the sovereignty of the Philippines. But who has military bases in the Philippines? Who was given land for their companies? Who is interfering and intervening in our foreign policy and stripping us of our autonomy to negotiate for the Filipino people?” said Kikay Mata of Bayan-Northeast.

Speakers also emphasized the importance of amplifying the lived realities of Filipinos in the country while strengthening solidarity among migrant communities abroad.

“The truth is that the real State of the Nation Address is being delivered in the streets of Manila, all across the provinces in the Philippines, here in the streets of New York, DC, Washington, all over the world where the diaspora movement is growing. We are the ones delivering the real condition of the peasants, the workers, the migrants, the women, the people who are suffering under the weight of this rotten system,” said Nieves Delgado, chairperson of Bayan-USA.