Manuel V. Pangilinan is moving to position his infrastructure group behind the Philippine government’s Pax Silica project, evaluating how power, connectivity, and data center assets can help transform Tarlac into an advanced technology hub. Speaking on Thursday, August 13, the chairman underscored that realizing a domestic Silicon Valley requires massive foundational investments over a long-term horizon.
Laying the Power and Infrastructure Foundation in New Clark City
The push to build a technological ecosystem in New Clark City hinges on heavy engineering inputs. According to Manuel V. Because current regional capacity may fall short of those thresholds, the Meralco chairman stated that building a dedicated power plant directly within Tarlac may prove necessary.
Water availability presents an equally critical bottleneck. Large-scale data center operations require cooling. While Metro Manila benefits from established concessionaires maintaining relatively reliable supply, Pangilinan noted that he did not know the water supply situation in Tarlac.
Connectivity requirements are equally uncompromising. PLDT Enterprise head Patricio “Blums” Pineda pointed out that tenants operating within the Pax Silica framework will demand robust private mobile networks, 5G, and Internet-of-Things architectures. These networks must blanket not only interior factories but also extend across regional supply chains and port logistics corridors servicing the zone.
Strategic Expansion for VITRO Data Centers and AI Training Workloads
Beyond general manufacturing infrastructure, the expansion strategy directly impacts the data center sector. PLDT’s data center arm, VITRO, is actively evaluating Tarlac as a potential site for its next facility, alongside alternative locations in General Trias, Cavite, and areas closer to Metro Manila. No location has been selected.
The economic rationale for placing a data facility in Tarlac centers on specialized computational workloads. VITRO president Victor Genuino explained that consumer-facing applications—such as real-time financial transactions and interactive gaming—demand close proximity to end-users to minimize latency. AI training workloads, however, operate under different physical constraints.
AI training workloads are less sensitive to distance. As Genuino noted, if the data center that you need to build is for AI training, you don’t need to worry as much about latency and it can be farther away.
Market demand underscores the expansion push. PLDT’s data center segment posted a 13% year-on-year growth rate during the first half of 2026, propelled by incoming hyperscalers, local enterprises, and public sector adoption. Holding a 33% market share by live colocation IT capacity, the group operates nine data centers. The flagship VITRO installation in Sta. Rosa is engineered for 36 megawatts of IT capacity, with 10 megawatts already built out and roughly half of that initial capacity committed to customers.
Regulatory tailwinds are accelerating that growth. Executive Order No. 119 mandates a data residency framework requiring certain government datasets to remain within Philippine borders. Genuino highlighted this mandate as very important for the growth of the data center business, compounding organic demand driven by enterprise digitalization.
Assessing the Long-Term Horizon for Regional Tech Clusters
Replicating a true technology cluster involves more than zoning land and laying fiber optic trunk lines. When first evaluating the Pax Silica concept on July 29, Pangilinan praised the ambition of the initiative while issuing a pragmatic warning regarding structural prerequisites.
Building a viable ecosystem demands a concentrated pool of specialized engineers, capital, infrastructure, and a mature higher-value industrial base. Without assembling those foundational pillars, industrial parks risk not becoming a genuine technology cluster.
As the Bases Conversion and Development Authority prepares briefing sessions for infrastructure leaders, the trajectory of Tarlac’s tech ambitions will depend on the deliberate synchronization of power generation, water resource management, and high-capacity digital pipelines.
