In terms of economic development compared to previous Presidents, PNoy did collect some modest achievement. But what is more interesting are the figures juxtaposed showing a more significant increase in the total wealth of the richest Filipinos.

Henry Sy remains the top businessman on the list. He has a net worth of $12.7 billion or P553.59 billion. He has topped the list for seven consecutive years! To think that he started small, this is noteworthy.

Moreover, based on the said news,” the combined wealth of the country's 50 richest is a whopping $74.2 billion or P3.2 trillion, up 12 percent from $65.8 billion in 2013.”

It has been estimated too that these richest Filipinos, comprising less than 1percent control 90% of the total wealth of the country.

There is a 3rd set of data that put things in perspective although this will not hit the headlines the way the two previous ones have.

In a data by the World Bank, “Despite higher growth, poverty incidence of the population barely improved from 26.3 percent in 2009 to 25.2 percent in 2012, suggesting that higher growth has yet to benefit many of the poor. In addition, natural calamities brought about by climate change have also pushed millions of Filipinos into poverty.”

Also the WB adds, “Underlying the slow progress in poverty reduction is the lack of good jobs. 75 percent of workers or some 28 million Filipinos are informally employed with little or no protection from job losses and opportunities to find gainful employment.”

Admittedly, these World Bank figures were those of months ago, but I doubt if the poverty incidence has significantly improved in the last one and a half years.

While the country’s GDP grows, the richest too are getting richer! Both show parallelism!Yetthere is incongruence with the rest of the 100 million Filipinos where income inequality persists and wealth gap is widening – year after year.

I give it to PNoy that perhaps he has done his utmost for the economy – surely he has done even better by the oligarchy. Arguments have been proffered that Cory’s son too is a captive of his class and one may not begrudge him for serving its interest. But this “trickle downeconomic system” does not work. The benefits from economic growth with the consequent increase in the wealth of the “richest Filipinos” will trickle down to the masses I believe – “...’til hell freezes over...”

PNoy still has a chance of being a great President in his last two years – maybe the greatest President we will have. But he has to go for systemic change of the Philippine political-economic profile. He needs to push to widen charter amendment now being worked through in Congress to include political reforms.

I now believe him when he said he will not precipitate an amendment to the constitution to extend his term. His one 6-year term is enough.

But thecontemplated amendments to the economic provisions in the constitutionare notadequate. We need a market economy with clear social safety-nets(Social Market Economy)underpinnings,uplifting the less privilege among us and all these guaranteed by a strong state – one that is borne out of the “rule of law”.

We need to go for a shift from a highly centralized structure of government to one of power-dispersing autonomous regions that eventually, sometime in the future lead to the establishment of a Federal System. We need to go for a shift from a colonially imposed presidential to a parliamentary form of government; the latter practiced in most of the advance economies of the world.

We need to push for the establishment of a real political party system that allows our people real choices of leaders that govern them steeped on a set of values and principles espoused by each political party.

Our kind of democracy has long been dysfunctional and so too are the institutions that logically flow from it. And we perpetuated a political patronage system developed over centuries that bred a political leadership with practices and culture embedded in the 1987 Constitution of PNoy’s mother.

PNoy is at a crossroads now. Plod on and do the usual “safe decisions” sticking to the “tuwidnadaan” and just cope while swayed by the advice of sycophants; or be bold and grasp the bull by the horns and go for Philippine systemic reforms.

He can leave in 2016 with this as his legacy. He may yet join Cory and Ninoy in the esteem of the Filipinos.