Imee Marcos wants Pax Silica probed over 130 million liters of water a day
Senate Resolution 547, filed Monday, asks how a Tarlac AI hub that needs 3 gigawatts of power and 130 million liters of water a day will hit farms and household bills.
Senator Imee Marcos filed Senate Resolution 547 on Monday, asking the Senate to investigate Pax Silica, the US-backed chip and AI hub going up in New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac. Until now the public fight over the project was about jobs and promises. This one is about water and electricity.
The resolution puts numbers on it. Pax Silica is estimated to need 130 million liters of water a day, which the resolution compares to the daily use of 600,000 households. It also needs 3 gigawatts of electricity, or at least 16 percent of the entire Luzon grid. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority, which is running the site, puts the water figure lower at 90 million liters a day, drawn from surface water and catch basins.
The reason a computer campus drinks that much is heat. Data centers are warehouses full of computers that run without stopping, and they cook themselves unless they are cooled.
Unlike conventional office buildings, AI data centers and servers inevitably generate intense heat and must be continuously cooled to prevent equipment failure, requiring vast quantities of clean water.
Why it matters
Water and power are not infinite, and they are shared. If a single site takes a sixth of Luzon's electricity and the water of a small city, the question is who gets less: the farmer who needs irrigation in Tarlac, or the household that pays the bill when supply gets tight. That is the question the resolution wants the Senate to answer before the concrete is poured, not after.
The catch to watch
The Palace disputes the farming part. Press Officer Claire Castro said the hub sits on 3,500 hectares of buildable land already zoned since the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, that the hub itself takes 1,620 hectares, and that 6,000 hectares stay reserved for forest, green space and upland farming. In her words, this will not affect our farmers. Also worth remembering: a Senate resolution is a request to hold hearings. It does not pause the project, it does not bind anyone, and nothing about Pax Silica changes the day it is filed.