An estimated 3,000 Aeta indigenous people from five barangays marched in Capas, Tarlac on July 14 to denounce the seizure of their ancestral land and the harassment they suffer from the Philippine Air Force (PAF). They also condemned the takeover of their ancestral land for the expansion of New Clark City under the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

The Aeta masses marched from Barangay O’Donnell to a checkpoint entering Colonel Ernesto Ravina Air Base (CERAB), a military reservation in Barangay Santa Juliana. National democratic groups in Central Luzon voiced support for them.

The PAF barred these communities from building and repairing homes. It suppressed their water and electricity supply and blocked the entry of aid and other services. This is tied to plans of building a Joint Training Complex for Filipino and American troops in the area.

The indigenous people said they were not asked for their free, prior and informed consent for this. Residents will be driven out of the 18,000-hectare military complex in the barangays of Santa Juliana, O’Donnell (Patling), and Santa Lucia.

Meanwhile, the BCDA continues constructing roads and destroying farms, ancestral land, and the environment for New Clark City. The Aeta residents expect the evictions to intensify further because the expansion includes a U.S. plan to build an economic security zone with an “artificial intelligence hub,” data centers, and other infrastructure under the Pax Silica initiative.

The US Embassy in the Philippines announced on July 14 the visit of US Ambassador Lee Lipton to the site of the projects in the economic security zone. That zone sits right next to the Joint Training Complex and is part of military and economic hubs such as the Subic Ammunition Factory and Agila Shipyard, Basa Airbase, Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation, and the APECO Defense Hub.