£5 Billion for Whose Development? Scrutinise the UK-Philippines Infrastructure Deal
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) Britain is raising urgent questions about the new government-to-government infrastructure partnership signed by the UK and Philippine governments on 23 September 2026.
The agreement opens access to up to £5 billion in UK Export Finance (UKEF) for Philippine government priority projects across transport, energy, water, healthcare, digital, and "advanced technology" infrastructure.
Ministers have presented the agreement as an opportunity to deliver infrastructure in the Philippines while creating contracts, jobs and growth for British businesses. But before billions in UK-backed finance begin flowing into major infrastructure projects, there must be transparency about what is being financed, who benefits, and what protections exist for affected communities.
What does this mean?
This is not £5 billion in British aid to the Philippines. UKEF is the UK's export credit agency. Its role is to help British companies secure overseas business by providing government-backed financing, guarantees and insurance.
The new agreement therefore creates a framework through which Philippine government projects can access UK-backed finance while creating opportunities for British companies, technology and expertise. But the governments have not published the full pipeline of projects being considered, their locations, contractors, financing arrangements or potential impacts.
This leaves an immediate question:
What will this £5 billion finance, who will benefit, who will carry the risks, and what safeguards will protect Filipino communities?
This agreement did not emerge in isolation
The deal is the latest development in a rapidly expanding UK-Philippines economic, technological, and security relationship.
2024: A UK-Philippines Defence Cooperation Memorandum entered into force, expanding cooperation across air, land, maritime, space and cyber domains.
March 2025: The UK and Philippines signed an Enhanced Partnership covering trade, infrastructure and technology alongside maritime security, military cooperation and defence procurement. The first UK-Philippines Joint Economic and Trade Committee also began developing the £5 billion financing framework announced this September.
December 2025: The UK became a founding signatory of Pax Silica, a US-led initiative focused on strategic supply chains spanning semiconductors, AI, advanced manufacturing, energy, logistics and critical minerals.
March 2026: The UK and Philippines launched GIP+, bringing together UKEF, British International Investment, and other UK-backed institutions to develop a pipeline of investable Philippine infrastructure projects.
April 2026: The Philippines joined Pax Silica and announced plans for an advanced manufacturing hub at New Clark City, with Philippine authorities linking it to AI, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, and the processing of locally sourced critical minerals.
September 2026: The new government-to-government agreement opened access to up to £5 billion in UKEF capacity for eligible Philippine infrastructure projects. Additionally, the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) Investment Forum was held on 10-11 September 2026 wherein British companies HSBC, Arup, and Knight Frank participated.
Taken together, these developments demand much greater scrutiny of Britain's growing economic and strategic role in the Philippines.
Critical questions about human rights and accountability
We are concerned on four counts:
1. The public still does not know what projects are being considered.
No full pipeline of projects under the £5 billion framework has been published. Filipino communities therefore cannot know whether infrastructure affecting their land, livelihoods, environment or public finances may eventually receive British government backing.
UKEF has environmental, social, and human-rights obligations. The UK government must make clear how these standards will be applied and how affected communities will be able to raise concerns before financing decisions are made.
2. Major infrastructure is being expanded in a country where land and environmental defenders continue to face serious human-rights risks.
Infrastructure does not take place on empty land. Across the Philippines, Indigenous Peoples, farmers, workers and environmental defenders continue to face red-tagging, harassment, criminalisation and violence while defending land, livelihoods and natural resources.
The UK has positioned this deal alongside its participation in the Luzon Economic Corridor, which runs through Clark in Pampanga and Tarlac. Clark is also where the Philippine government is fast-tracking a Pax Silica "Economic Security Zone" — the US-led initiative, of which the UK is a founding member, built to secure critical minerals and semiconductors for AI and military supply chains. That zone has no completed feasibility study or environmental impact assessment. The original New Clark City development has already displaced Aeta and peasant communities.
We fear UK public finance will build the infrastructure that makes extraction and militarisation easier. Any UK-backed project must therefore be assessed not only for its promised economic benefits, but for who controls the land, whether communities have genuinely consented, whose livelihoods are affected, and whether people can safely oppose a project without retaliation.
3. British capital is already connected to contested extractive projects and human rights issues in the Philippines.
London-listed Metals Exploration PLC controls Woggle Corporation through its corporate structure in the Philippines. Communities in Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya have resisted Woggle's exploration for gold and copper amid concerns over land, water, livelihoods and consultation. In January 2026, police dismantled a community barricade and arrested seven land defenders while enforcing an order allowing access for Woggle.
The British Mining Out of the Philippines (BMOP) campaign has brought this struggle directly to Britain. It demonstrates why UK corporate and government involvement in the Philippines must be scrutinised before projects proceed, rather than only after communities report harm.
4. The UK is deepening its economic and security relationship with the US-Marcos Jr administration despite continuing human-rights violations and demands for accountability.
These developments cannot be separated from the government with which Britain is choosing to do business. Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., human-rights organisations continue to document red-tagging, harassment and criminalisation of activists, attacks on land and environmental defenders, and enforced disappearances. The US-Marcos Jr. administration has also resisted calls to dismantle NTF-ELCAC, a state body repeatedly implicated in red-tagging activists, Indigenous Peoples, workers and human-rights defenders.
This deepening partnership also comes amid major corruption allegations and intensifying divisions within the Philippine ruling elite under the Marcos Jr. administration. Yet rather than making these continuing violations a barrier to deeper relations, the UK is simultaneously expanding trade and infrastructure financing, defence cooperation and its strategic partnership with the Philippine government. This raises a fundamental question: why is the UK government collaborating with a corrupt and divided regime?
This is especially concerning as infrastructure, critical minerals and militarisation become increasingly interconnected. Both Britain and the Philippines are now members of Pax Silica. Philippine authorities have explicitly connected the proposed Pax Silica hub at New Clark City to AI, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and the processing of locally sourced critical minerals. At the same time, the wider Luzon Economic Corridor is expanding transport, ports, energy and supply-chain infrastructure, while UK–Philippines defence cooperation continues to deepen.
We are not claiming that the new £5 billion UKEF framework currently finances Pax Silica, mining or military projects. We are demanding to know whether UK-backed finance could be used, directly or indirectly, to build the infrastructure on which these strategic supply chains depend, and why the UK government continues to deepen economic and security cooperation with the Marcos Jr. administration without stronger human-rights conditions and accountability.
Development cannot be separated from the conditions under which it takes place. UK-backed infrastructure must not strengthen a government implicated in continuing attacks on human-rights defenders, nor enable foreign powers and corporations to secure strategic resources, markets and infrastructure while Filipino communities bear the costs.
ICHRP Britain calls on the UK government to
Publish the pipeline of Philippine projects being considered for UKEF support and disclose their financing arrangements, contractors and environmental, social and human-rights assessments.
Guarantee meaningful consultation and respect for the rights of affected communities and Indigenous Peoples before UK support is approved.
Disclose whether infrastructure associated with the Luzon Economic Corridor, Pax Silica, critical-mineral extraction or processing, or military and dual-use supply chains is eligible for support under the £5 billion framework.
Ensure parliamentary and public scrutiny of the UK's expanding economic, technological and security relationship with the Philippines.
Apply UKEF's own environmental, social and human-rights standards rigorously, including protections for human-rights and environmental defenders.
We stand with Filipino communities, workers, Indigenous Peoples and land defenders organising to protect their land, water, livelihoods and rights.
We invite UK trade unions, human-rights organisations, environmental and climate justice groups, faith communities and the Filipino diaspora to join us in scrutinising Britain's growing role in the Philippines and campaigning against the exploitation and militarisation of the country's people and resources.
As the Filipino people stand against foreign domination and plunder, ICHRP calls on the international community, including organisations and movements in Britain, to stand with communities defending their ancestral lands and natural resources. We must oppose their exploitation for foreign corporate interests and resist the use of the Philippines' rich natural resources and strategic infrastructure to serve US-led war production and militarisation.