By Miguel Zárate
The Filipino-student organization Anakbayan College Park hosted a town hall in protest of Pax Silica’s presence in the Philippines, raising awareness on the issues it presents and highlighting the University of Maryland’s role in supporting the U.S.-led alliance.
Pax Silica is a U.S.-led alliance to secure a supply chain for raw resources crucial to AI technology production. 25 countries have joined the alliance. The Philippines joined earlier in 2026.
Members of various student organizations attended the event Anakbayan College Park hosted, a chapter of a larger mass organization of Filipino youth across the United States and in the Philippines. TerpCHRP, FCAdvocacy, Kabataan Alliance DMV and Students for Justice in Palestine were among those who attended.
“[Anakbayan] is really fighting for genuine liberation and genuine democracy in the Philippines,” said Anakbayan College Park chairperson Rio Gutierrez. “We really want our own national industries. We want genuine agrarian reform. We really want to have our resources as our own; to use our resources and our land for our people.”
Gutierrez said that the Philippines is one of the few countries that signed to give away land from their own country. They are giving 4,000 acres of land in Luzon, according to Gutierrez.
The Philippine government gave away land the Aeta people inhabited, an indigenous community. Construction on the land includes plans for AI data centers, which bring a litany of environmental issues.
“This is another direct instance of that exploitation and displacing indigenous people,” said Nevan McMillian, representative for the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines.
McMillian described a system where the U.S. buys raw resources mined through cheap labor, processes them, then sells them back to the Philippines for a higher price.
“That’s what’s called a super profit. It creates this environment in the economy where there’s no actual development in industry,” he said.
McMillian had the opportunity to live in the Philippines over a period of time during the summer where he resided in a rural community where residents “were organizing to fight to keep their land … when they tried to put up their own water tower. That’s when the military got more aggressive because they were scared that they’re organizing more.”
During the town hall, organizers mentioned how U.S.-based defense contractors were investing in the land, critical resources harvested from the land are used for armament and weapons production. The data centers built in Luzon would assist the military as well.
According to Anakbayan College Park’s presentation during the town hall, the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) carries out research for the United States Department of War. In 2026, the state of Maryland sent $65 million in tax dollars to fund the Microsoft Quantum research center as a part of ARLIS for defense and AI research. Money went to this lab instead of the students, staff, and services at UMD.
Another connection the university has to Pax Silica is through AeroVironment, a corporation that attended the Pax Silica Luzon Investment Forum. According to the presentation, “AeroVironment sells surveillance drones to the Philippines which are used to surveil activists and indigenous communities throughout the country.”
AeroVironment is among many American defense companies present at University of Maryland career fairs.
“[There are] companies here, at the career fair, that advertise to students well-paying jobs, but in reality, they are fueling the military-industrial complex,” said Kian Valenzuela, a member of the Filipino Cultural Association. “Even Lockheed Martin here on campus has a really big presence.”
Shubh Agnihotri, a junior electrical engineering major and a member of Students for Justice in Palestine spoke at the town hall.
“Any of these people doing data infrastructure and military contracting, they all come to the University of Maryland to try and recruit new talent to fund their you know machine of like you know imperialism, genocide, and displacement,” Agnihotri said.
Attendees at the town hall are working towards better conditions for people in the Philippines. Gutierrez talked about Christina Pasion, the Filipino American who was illegally arrested in the Philippines. Pasion is from Baltimore.
“It’s normal to feel fear,” Gutierrez said. “How could you not, with the increased amount of repression against human rights defenders. But we can’t back down and we can’t abandon our people, right?”
Featured Image: Students gathered together for a photo at the end of the Pax Silica town hall in Tawes Hall on Oct. 24. Photo by Miguel Zárate.