During the past week, an expert argued that Filipinos should give Pax Silica a chance due to its promise of industrialization and economic growth, a point countered by the opinion that scrutiny should not be toned down. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) walked back its initial statements, saying the site will not host data centers but semiconductor and advanced manufacturing facilities. The article notes that public scrutiny works and questions what happens to initial estimates for energy, water and electricity use with the removal of data centers. To illustrate scale, Meta’s Hyperion project in Louisiana spans roughly 3,650 acres and is expected to require about five gigawatts of power, while Pax Silica envisions a 4,000-acre industrial hub with a projected power requirement of around three gigawatts. The project will permanently reshape part of Tarlac’s landscape. Investigative video reports by Business Insider, PBS, and More Perfect Union document US communities living beside large-scale AI infrastructure, with questions similar to those asked about Pax Silica. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google are collectively investing hundreds of billions of dollars to build computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence. Even without data centers, Pax Silica is tied to a proposed AI value chain led by the US, and AI is ultimately a power- and resource-hungry creation.