Arroyo is the one who lives in a ‘glass house’ – solon

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the one who lives in a “glass house" made of a shaky Philippine economy that relies heavily on overseas remittance for survival, according to Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello. Bello made the remark after Mrs. Arroyo in her ninth State of the Nation Address on Monday boasted of a strong Philippine economy under her watch and attacked her critics saying “those who live in glass houses should cast no stones." “Mrs. Arroyo is the one living in a glass house, claiming strong economic fundamentals while skilled workers are sent abroad at the expense of industrial development," Bello told reporters. Bello echoes the views of critics who claim that the Philippine economy has become more vulnerable to global market swings due to the labor export policy being pushed by the Arroyo administration. Last year, the country received $16.4-billion remittance from overseas Filipino workers. Critics say the country’s dependence on foreign remittance has made a way for the government to avoid its task of developing a more sustainable domestic economy that will make overseas work for Filipinos an option rather than a necessity. Bello, an economist who heads the advocacy group Freedom from Debt Coaltion also disagreed to the President’s view that the country was spared from the global financial shock because of her “strong, bitter, and unpopular revenue measures of the past few years." He said the President had refused to “recognize the real threat of global crisis" thus the country had kept on sending “low value-added exports to shrinking international markets." - with reports from Johanna Camille Sisante and Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV