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Philippines AI Initiatives

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Pax Silica: Why the Philippines Just Became AI’s Next Big Bet

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The Philippines just landed a starring role in the global AI supply chain — and in the same week, government quietly wrote the rulebook for how AI should behave inside it.

The Weekly Headline: Pax Silica: Why the Philippines Just Became AI’s Next Big Bet

Two stories broke in the Philippines this week that, read together, say more about the country’s AI trajectory than either does alone. The first is big and geopolitical: the Philippines and the United States are finalizing a draft framework for an AI-native hub in New Clark City, Tarlac — a 4,000-acre site earmarked for semiconductor and AI infrastructure under an initiative dubbed “Pax Silica.” A signing is being targeted for November, timed to the ASEAN Summit in Manila. The second is smaller and procedural, but arguably more consequential for everyday Filipinos: the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the Civil Service Commission issued a joint circular laying out a principles-based framework for ethical AI use across the public sector.

Chips, land, and a bet on infrastructure

Pax Silica is a hardware story before it’s an AI story. The pitch is that the Philippines — with mineral reserves relevant to chip manufacturing and a government eager for foreign investment — becomes a physical anchor point for the compute and semiconductor capacity that AI models actually run on. Regionally, the Department of Science and Technology has also told local government units, including Central Visayas, to start drafting their own AI roadmaps, pushing the conversation past Manila and into provincial governance.

Governance catches up, on paper at least

Frameworks are easy to publish and hard to enforce. The new DICT-CSC joint circular is a start: it sets expectations for how government agencies deploy AI responsibly, rather than leaving each office to freelance its own rules. Whether it has teeth will depend on implementation — audits, accountability mechanisms, and public reporting are usually where governance frameworks either prove themselves or quietly stall.

Why this matters beyond the headlines

Dominic “Doc” Ligot, Founding Director for AI Ethics and Data Governance at the Philippine AI Business Association, has been pushing a “three E’s” framework for exactly this moment: Enforcement, Education, and Engineering — the idea that penalties for misuse only work if paired with public education and technical guardrails built into the systems themselves. That’s the gap between a signed framework and an AI ecosystem people actually trust. As infrastructure investment accelerates, the harder work of governance, literacy, and ethics has to keep pace, not trail behind. Doc is the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest and has upcoming webinars unpacking exactly these developments — details at aitalks.younifest.com.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

Whether Pax Silica delivers jobs and infrastructure, or ends up another ambitious framework awaiting implementation, is a story that will play out over years. But the fact that the Philippines is simultaneously negotiating hardware investment and drafting AI ethics policy in the same month says the conversation has matured — from “should we use AI” to “how do we build it responsibly, here, now.”

Further Reading:

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

Pax Silica: Inside the AI Hub That Could Redefine the Philippines’ Tech Future

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The Philippines just landed a 4,000-acre bet on the future of AI infrastructure — and the fine print is as revealing as the headline.

The Weekly Headline: Pax Silica — Inside the AI Hub That Could Redefine the Philippines’ Tech Future

This month, Malacañang confirmed it is backing “Pax Silica,” a US-initiated program to secure supply chains for artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and critical minerals. The centerpiece: a 4,000-acre industrial hub planned for New Clark City in Tarlac, with a framework agreement between the Philippines and the United States expected to be signed in November.

Why this matters beyond the ribbon-cutting

AI doesn’t run on algorithms alone — it runs on chips, minerals, and electricity. Pax Silica is a bet that the Philippines can become a physical anchor point in that supply chain, leveraging its high-purity silica sand and quartz reserves in Zambales and Tarlac. If it goes through, it could position the country as more than a back-office hub for global tech — it becomes part of the hardware layer AI depends on.

The tension underneath the announcement

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro has assured the public that President Marcos is committed to following Philippine law and that “there will be no displacement of communities.” But House Assistant Minority Leader Renee Co disputes that framing, warning that the project could displace farmers, agricultural workers, and Dumagat indigenous communities across Central Luzon, and that the water demands — over 5 million gallons daily for cooling — deserve far more scrutiny than they’re getting. The National Water Resources Board says supply is sufficient; critics aren’t convinced.

This is the pattern every emerging AI economy runs into eventually: the promise of investment and jobs collides with real questions about land, water, and who actually benefits. Pax Silica is a live case study in that trade-off, playing out in real time before our eyes.

What to watch

Two things worth tracking as November approaches: whether the environmental and community safeguards that Malacañang has promised actually show up in the signed framework, and whether the incentives extended to multinational partners get matched by comparable investment in local education and industry — the kind of foundational work that determines whether a country benefits from an AI boom or just hosts one.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

Pax Silica is proof that AI’s biggest decisions aren’t only made in labs — they’re made in land-use agreements, water board hearings, and congressional statements. Following the infrastructure story is just as important as following the model releases.

Further Reading

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF. Doc is the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest, with upcoming webinars diving into exactly these kinds of AI policy and governance questions — visit aitalks.younifest.com for details.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

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Philippines Bets Big on AI: Inside the Pax Silica Hub and New Ethics Rules for Government

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The Philippines just made two of its biggest AI moves yet in the same month — a 4,000-acre AI industrial hub in the works with the US, and new government rules on using AI ethically. Here’s what’s actually happening.

The Weekly Headline: Philippines Bets Big on AI — A New Hub and New Rules, in the Same Month

A 4,000-acre bet on AI manufacturing

In July, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority confirmed it is eyeing a 4,000-acre site in New Clark City, Tarlac, to host the coordination office for “Pax Silica” — a US-led initiative to build an AI-native industrial hub in the Philippines. The site has been designated a “Golden Node” in a broader push to link the Philippines into a network of trusted nations for AI and semiconductor manufacturing. Negotiations on the long-term framework are expected to wrap up within two to three months, with a signing possibly timed to the ASEAN Summit in Manila this November. The US Development Finance Corporation has already approved funding for a feasibility study on the power infrastructure the hub would need, including a proposed LNG terminal.

Government AI use just got its first rulebook

Days before that news broke, the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the Civil Service Commission issued Joint Memorandum Circular No. 003, Series of 2026 — the country’s first principles-based framework for how government agencies may ethically develop, deploy, and use AI. It covers governance, accountability, data protection, and human rights safeguards, and it extends indirectly to private vendors who supply AI systems to government agencies. Implementing guidelines are due within 90 days.

Infrastructure and guardrails, arriving together

What’s notable is the sequencing: the country isn’t just chasing AI investment, it’s trying to write the rules for using it responsibly at roughly the same time. That pairing is exactly the space where Doc Ligot has spent years working. As Founding Director for AI Ethics & Data Governance at the Philippine AI Business Association and a member of the UK’s Expert Advisory Panel on Advanced AI Safety, he’s been one of the loudest voices arguing that the Philippines needs both the infrastructure and the guardrails — not one without the other. Doc is the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest, with upcoming webinars digging into exactly these questions of AI ethics, governance, and readiness in the Philippine context. Details and schedules are at https://aitalks.younifest.com.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

A hub still being negotiated and a circular still being implemented aren’t finished products — but together they mark a shift from talking about AI policy to actually building it. Whether that Golden Node lives up to its name will depend on how well those two tracks, investment and ethics, stay connected.

Further Reading

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

The Philippines Just Wrote Its First AI Rulebook for Government

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The government just told its own agencies how AI is allowed to be used — and the rules apply to every private vendor that builds AI for them too.

The Weekly Headline: The Philippines Just Wrote Its First AI Rulebook for Government — and It’s Stricter Than You’d Expect

On June 9, 2026, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) issued Joint Memorandum Circular No. 003, Series of 2026 — the country’s first principles-based framework for how artificial intelligence can be developed, deployed, and used across the Philippine public sector. It took a few weeks for the legal and policy world to catch up, but by mid-July, law firms and industry groups were calling it a genuine turning point.

What the circular actually does

The JMC sets out governance, accountability, and data protection requirements for every government agency using AI — from a chatbot on a city hall website to predictive models used in social services. Crucially, it doesn’t stop at government doors. Agencies are now expected to hold their private-sector AI vendors to the same standard, which means any company selling AI tools to a Philippine government office needs to start reading fine print it may never have looked at before.

Part of a bigger push

This isn’t happening in isolation. Days later, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) directed regions outside Metro Manila — including Central Visayas — to draft their own AI roadmaps, backed by the National AI Center for Research and Innovation’s computing resources. The goal is explicit: keep AI adoption from concentrating entirely in the capital. Add to that the Marcos administration’s push for the “Pax Silica” initiative, a proposed AI and semiconductor hub in Clark backed by US investment, and a pattern emerges — 2026 is the year the Philippines stopped treating AI governance as an afterthought and started building the scaffolding first.

Why this matters beyond government offices

Framework documents like the JMC rarely make headlines, but they set the tone for everything downstream: how startups pitch AI products to agencies, how citizens can expect their data to be handled, and how quickly “ethical AI” moves from a slide in a deck to an actual compliance checklist. Advocates who’ve spent years pushing for exactly this kind of structure — including local voices in the Data and AI Ethics PH community — have long argued that governance frameworks need to exist before AI scales, not after something goes wrong.

That’s also the space Dominic “Doc” Ligot has worked in for years. As founder of Data and AI Ethics PH and Director for AI Ethics and Data Governance at the Philippine AI Business Association, Doc has spent much of the past few years arguing for exactly the kind of principles-based, accountability-first framework the DICT and CSC just published. He’s also the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest, with upcoming webinars digging into what frameworks like this actually mean for businesses and everyday Filipinos navigating the AI shift — details at aitalks.younifest.com.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

A joint memorandum circular won’t trend on social media. But it’s exactly the kind of unglamorous groundwork that determines whether AI adoption in the Philippines happens responsibly or recklessly. Worth watching: whether local government units actually have the technical capacity to enforce it, and whether private vendors adjust before someone forces them to.

Further Reading:

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

The Philippine Government Just Set Ground Rules for AI. Here’s What They Actually Say.

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The Philippines now has its first government-wide playbook for using AI responsibly — and it landed quietly in the middle of a summer packed with AI headlines.

The Weekly Headline: The Philippine Government Just Set Ground Rules for AI. Here’s What They Actually Say.

On June 9, 2026, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) quietly issued Joint Memorandum Circular No. 003, Series of 2026 — the country’s first principles-based framework for how government agencies should develop, deploy, and use AI. It’s not flashy. There’s no press conference footage of ribbon-cutting. But if you work in or around government, or you’re a vendor selling AI tools to government, this is the document that will shape your next few years.

What the circular actually covers

The JMC asks every covered government agency to align its AI activities with core principles: fairness, transparency, accountability, privacy, and security. Agencies are required to set up internal oversight — committees that actually review AI systems before and after they go live, not just a policy sitting in a drawer. And crucially, DICT and CSC have 90 days from the circular’s effectivity to issue implementing guidelines, which is where the real teeth will show up.

Why it matters beyond government offices

Here’s the part easy to miss: the circular’s reach doesn’t stop at government payrolls. Agencies are expected to hold their private-sector AI vendors to the same standards. If your startup sells an AI tool to any government office, this circular just became part of your compliance checklist, whether you’ve read it yet or not.

The bigger picture: a busy month for Philippine AI policy

This circular didn’t arrive in isolation. Just weeks later, DOST began directing regions to draft their own AI roadmaps, and the Pax Silica initiative — a joint Philippine-US push to build AI and semiconductor infrastructure in Clark, Tarlac — picked up momentum, with a framework deal possibly signing by November. Add government AI literacy programs that have already reached 1.8 million Filipinos, and a pattern emerges: 2026 is the year the Philippines stopped talking about AI policy and started writing it down.

What to watch next

The next 90 days matter more than the circular itself. Implementing guidelines will determine whether “accountability” and “transparency” are enforceable requirements or just words in a memo. That’s usually where AI ethics frameworks succeed or quietly fade — precisely the kind of gap that people like Doc Ligot, who advises on AI ethics and governance at a national level, spend their careers closing.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

A joint circular between two government agencies isn’t the kind of story that trends on social media. But it’s the kind of story that determines whether the AI systems touching public services in the Philippines are built with guardrails — or built in a hurry. Worth watching closely over the next quarter.

Further Reading:

Curious how frameworks like this get put into practice — and where the gaps usually are? Doc Ligot, the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest, works directly on AI ethics and governance for the Philippines and has upcoming webinars digging into exactly these questions. Details at aitalks.younifest.com.

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

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The Philippines Just Wrote Its First Rulebook for Government AI

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The Philippine government just drew its first real line in the sand on AI ethics — and the rules now reach any private company that builds AI tools for public agencies.

The Weekly Headline: The Philippines Just Wrote Its First Rulebook for Government AI

A quiet circular with a loud implication

On June 9, 2026, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) issued Joint Memorandum Circular No. 003, Series of 2026 — a principles-based framework for the ethical and responsible development, deployment, and use of AI across the Philippine public sector. It’s not flashy. It won’t trend on social media. But it’s arguably the most consequential AI policy move the country has made this year.

The circular sets expectations for governance, accountability, and data protection inside government agencies. What makes it interesting beyond the bureaucratic layer is who else it touches: private sector vendors that build or supply AI systems to government offices are now expected to meet the same ethical standards. In other words, if your startup sells an AI chatbot to a local government unit, or your firm builds a fraud-detection model for a national agency, you inherit the same accountability the government just gave itself.

Why this matters more than another “AI adoption” headline

The Philippines has spent the last two years being described, fairly, as a fast adopter and a slow builder — quick to plug in generative AI tools, slower to build the guardrails and domestic capability around them. This circular is one of the first moves that flips that script: instead of chasing adoption, it starts governing it.

It also lands in a year already crowded with AI policy activity — an AI Infrastructure Master Plan, the DICT’s State of the Nation in AI event in January, and a nationwide AI literacy push through basic education. Taken together, these are the early scaffolding of what a “Filipino framework for AI” might actually look like: not a single sweeping law, but a stack of smaller, sector-specific rules built one agency at a time.

The ethics community was asking for this

Grassroots groups like AI and Data Ethics PH have been pushing exactly this kind of principles-first, accountability-first approach for years — arguing that ethics can’t be an afterthought bolted onto AI systems after they’re already deployed to millions of citizens. Dominic “Doc” Ligot, who serves as Director for AI Ethics and Data Governance at the Philippine AI Business Association, has been one of the clearest voices on this point: the risk isn’t AI itself, it’s unregulated “shadow AI” deployments that expose ordinary Filipinos before anyone has agreed on the rules.

Doc is the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest, where he regularly unpacks developments like this one in plain language — what they mean for builders, policymakers, and everyday users alike. If you want to go deeper on where Philippine AI governance is headed, his upcoming webinars are the place to start; details are at https://aitalks.younifest.com.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

A government circular about “principles-based frameworks” might not sound like news you’d stop scrolling for. But this is exactly how AI accountability actually gets built — not in one dramatic law, but in circulars, procurement clauses, and agency guidelines that quietly decide who’s responsible when an algorithm gets something wrong. The Philippines just wrote one more page of that rulebook.

Further Reading:

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

Bacolod, Not Manila, Is Where the Philippines’ AI Future Is Being Decided

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Over a thousand delegates didn’t gather in Manila to talk about AI this month — they gathered in Bacolod. And Doc Ligot was there closing the conversation.

The Weekly Headline: Bacolod, Not Manila, Is Where the Philippines’ AI Future Is Being Decided

When people picture the Philippines’ AI conversation, they usually picture Metro Manila — BGC panels, Makati boardrooms, national policy briefings. Last week, more than 1,000 delegates proved that picture wrong. From July 20 to 24, TRAIN 2026: AI & Innovation Networking Week filled the SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City with government agencies, telcos, schools, startups, and business groups, all wrestling with the same question: how does a regional economy — not just a capital city — actually participate in the AI boom?

A five-day stress test for regional AI readiness

The conference, convened by former DICT undersecretary Jocelle Batapa-Sigue through the Philippine ICT Innovation Network, covered ground that rarely gets aired outside Manila: digital infrastructure for the Negros Island Region, AI-enabled tourism and agriculture, workforce transformation for outsourcing jobs, and — on the final day — the harder questions of misinformation, AI safety, and public trust.

Doc Ligot closes the loop on governance

That final day is where CirroLytix founder Dominic “Doc” Ligot took the stage, discussing the governance mechanisms needed to protect the public while still letting organizations build and deploy AI. It’s a theme Doc has been sounding for years: enforcement, education, and engineering, held in balance — penalties for abuse, paired with real incentives for responsible development. He closed the conference alongside Batapa-Sigue in a roundtable on what comes next: sustained training programs, startup support, and policy follow-through for Negros Island and beyond.

Why “regional” is the real story

It’s easy to write national AI strategy from a conference room in the capital. It’s harder — and more honest — to test that strategy against a mid-sized city’s telecom capacity, a local college’s curriculum, or a small tourism operator’s actual budget. That’s what made Bacolod notable: CirroLytix CEO Claire Tayco presented a framework for assessing regional AI readiness, and a youth pitching competition, DASIG.AI, asked high schoolers and college students to design AI solutions judged not on flashy code but on ethical considerations and real-world impact. AI policy that survives contact with a province is a different, more durable thing than AI policy that only survives contact with a slide deck.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

It’s already sitting in a convention center in Bacolod, in the hands of students pitching ideas, and in the governance frameworks people like Doc Ligot are still shaping in real time. If you want to hear more of that thinking directly, Doc Ligot is the featured speaker for upcoming webinars hosted by AI Talks @ Younifest — details at https://aitalks.younifest.com.

Further Reading

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

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Doc Ligot and the Push for AI Governance the Philippines Actually Needs

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The Philippines just got a fresh nudge toward real AI governance — and one of the country’s clearest voices on the topic was in the room, again, pushing for guardrails that protect people without freezing innovation.

The Weekly Headline: Doc Ligot and the Push for AI Governance the Philippines Actually Needs

Two things happened in the same week that, together, say a lot about where Philippine AI policy is headed. On August 8, the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) proposed a national AI implementation task force to President Marcos, aiming to turn the country’s AI strategy into concrete programs for education, infrastructure, and governance. A few days earlier, at “TRAIN 2026: AI & Innovation Networking Week” in Bacolod, CirroLytix founder Dominic “Doc” Ligot closed out a five-day, 1,000-delegate conference with a pointed message: the Philippines needs governance mechanisms that protect the public while still letting organizations build and deploy AI.

Governance as an enabler, not a brake

It’s a framing that keeps showing up in Doc’s work, and it matters because the alternative — treating “governance” and “innovation” as opposing forces — tends to produce either reckless deployment or paralysis by committee. At TRAIN 2026’s closing sessions on misinformation, AI safety, and data governance, Doc argued for the middle path: mechanisms that build public trust precisely so that AI adoption can scale responsibly, from Metro Manila to the Negros Island Region and beyond.

From Bacolod to Malacañang

That regional angle matters. TRAIN 2026 was explicitly designed to move the AI conversation outside the capital, and Doc shared the stage with voices like DICT Negros Occidental’s Jane Agonace, who presented an AI-readiness framework built on skills, data, innovation, and governance — the same four pillars now echoed in PSAC’s proposed task force, which groups its work around education and workforce development, infrastructure and R&D, and policy and governance. Whether that alignment is coincidence or convergence, it suggests the country’s AI conversation — from a convention hall in Bacolod to a boardroom in Malacañang — is starting to speak the same language.

Why the details matter

None of this guarantees good outcomes. Task forces can stall, and conferences can produce panels without policy. But the shift in emphasis — from “should we regulate AI” to “how do we build governance that people and businesses can actually work with” — is the harder, more useful conversation. It’s also the one Doc Ligot has been having consistently, whether the audience is a regional tech conference or a national advisory council.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

The Philippines isn’t waiting for a global AI governance consensus to emerge before acting. Between grassroots regional forums and national task force proposals, the scaffolding is being built in real time — imperfectly, but visibly.

Want to hear more from Doc Ligot directly? He’s the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest, with upcoming webinars covering AI governance, ethics, and practical adoption. Visit https://aitalks.younifest.com for details.

Further Reading

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

Doc Ligot Tells ECCP Forum: The Philippines Can Lead on “Equitable AI”

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At an ECCP forum this week, Doc Ligot and other leaders made the case that the Philippines’ AI story shouldn’t be written in Silicon Valley — it should be written in Bacolod, Cebu, and every barangay in between.

The Weekly Headline: Doc Ligot Tells ECCP Forum: The Philippines Can Lead on “Equitable AI”

On August 13, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines convened its AI Forum under the theme “Bridging Innovation and Integrity: Charting the Path for Equitable AI.” The message from the stage was blunt: the Philippines has a real shot at becoming an AI pioneer in the Global South — but only if the technology’s benefits reach past Metro Manila’s BPO towers.

A week of momentum

The ECCP forum landed in the middle of a genuinely busy stretch for Philippine AI policy. Days earlier, the Department of Trade and Industry opened a 380-square-meter AI and Scale-Up Center in Manila, offering free training and cloud tools to small businesses. TESDA reported roughly 90,000 enrollments in AI-related courses so far this year, backed by a ₱641-million training allocation. And in Bacolod, a separate forum pushed for wider countryside participation in the AI economy — a direct answer to the “Manila-only” criticism that shadows most tech booms in the country.

Why “equitable” is the operative word

It would be easy to celebrate the headline numbers — new centers, new funding, new enrollments — and stop there. What made this week different is the insistence, echoed across multiple events, that access and ethics have to move together. A World Bank report released the same week noted that while AI can power real growth for the Philippines, it also threatens disruption in the BPO sector that employs over a million Filipinos. That tension is exactly the terrain Doc Ligot has spent years working in.

Doc Ligot’s throughline

As Director for AI Ethics and Data Governance at the Philippine AI Business Association and founder of Data and AI Ethics PH, Doc Ligot has consistently pushed the conversation beyond “how do we adopt AI faster” toward “who gets left out if we get this wrong.” His presence at the ECCP forum, alongside his recent talk on “AI-Driven Operating Models” at the Cebu Transformation Summit, reflects a consistent thread: AI adoption in the Philippines needs guardrails as much as it needs speed.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

Between new government centers, ASEAN’s “AI for Good” chairmanship theme, and forums stretching from Manila to Bacolod, the infrastructure and the intent are both taking shape. The harder work — making sure a call center agent in Davao and a startup founder in Makati have the same shot at this technology — is just getting started.

Want to go deeper on equitable AI adoption? Doc Ligot is the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest, with upcoming webinars covering exactly these questions. Visit https://aitalks.younifest.com for details.

Further Reading

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

Follow Doc Ligot on Facebook: https://facebook.com/docligotAI

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Pax Silica: Inside the AI Hub That Could Redefine the Philippines’ Tech Future

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The Philippines just landed a 4,000-acre bet on the future of AI infrastructure — and the fine print is as revealing as the headline.

The Weekly Headline: Pax Silica — Inside the AI Hub That Could Redefine the Philippines’ Tech Future

This month, Malacañang confirmed it is backing “Pax Silica,” a US-initiated program to secure supply chains for artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and critical minerals. The centerpiece: a 4,000-acre industrial hub planned for New Clark City in Tarlac, with a framework agreement between the Philippines and the United States expected to be signed in November.

Why this matters beyond the ribbon-cutting

AI doesn’t run on algorithms alone — it runs on chips, minerals, and electricity. Pax Silica is a bet that the Philippines can become a physical anchor point in that supply chain, leveraging its high-purity silica sand and quartz reserves in Zambales and Tarlac. If it goes through, it could position the country as more than a back-office hub for global tech — it becomes part of the hardware layer AI depends on.

The tension underneath the announcement

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro has assured the public that President Marcos is committed to following Philippine law and that “there will be no displacement of communities.” But House Assistant Minority Leader Renee Co disputes that framing, warning that the project could displace farmers, agricultural workers, and Dumagat indigenous communities across Central Luzon, and that the water demands — over 5 million gallons daily for cooling — deserve far more scrutiny than they’re getting. The National Water Resources Board says supply is sufficient; critics aren’t convinced.

This is the pattern every emerging AI economy runs into eventually: the promise of investment and jobs collides with real questions about land, water, and who actually benefits. Pax Silica is a live case study in that trade-off, playing out in real time before our eyes.

What to watch

Two things worth tracking as November approaches: whether the environmental and community safeguards that Malacañang has promised actually show up in the signed framework, and whether the incentives extended to multinational partners get matched by comparable investment in local education and industry — the kind of foundational work that determines whether a country benefits from an AI boom or just hosts one.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

Pax Silica is proof that AI’s biggest decisions aren’t only made in labs — they’re made in land-use agreements, water board hearings, and congressional statements. Following the infrastructure story is just as important as following the model releases.

Further Reading

About Doc Ligot:

Dominic “Doc” Ligot is one of the leading voices in AI in the Philippines. Doc has been extensively cited in local and global media outlets including The Economist, South China Morning Post, Washington Post, and Agence France Presse. His award-winning work has been recognized and published by prestigious organizations such as NASA, Data.org, Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF. Doc is the featured speaker at AI Talks @ Younifest, with upcoming webinars diving into exactly these kinds of AI policy and governance questions — visit aitalks.younifest.com for details.

If you need guidance or training in maximizing AI for your career or business, reach out to Doc via https://docligot.com.

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