116 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy “For the President – P12 billion in addition to the Pagcor Social Fund, the contingent fund, and PCSO fund For the vice-President – P200 million For the senators – P200 million plus P100 million on insertions plus P15 million each for the Members of the Commission on Appointments (CA) For Congressmen – P70 million plus P50 million per congressional district from the DPWH funds plus P15 million for CA members”. He also listed the sources pork barrel for governors, vice-governors, mayors, vice-mayors councilors. According to Maceda, “the accepted practice is for the pork barrel sponsor to designate the contractor in a rigged bidding procedure”. The sponsor of the project is expected to receive “kickback” or “tongpats” from the contractor ranging from 20% to 30% of the total project cost. “Walang tuwid na daan dito”, Maceda concludes. Scandals, highlighting the weakness of horizontal accountability, had marked the administrations of Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo. The Ramos administration was tainted by the Amari and Centennial Expo controversies. The Estrada administration had the jueteng payola, insider trading and ghost projects scandals. The Arroyo administration had the Fertilizer Scam and NBN-ZTE scandal. The scandalous “Fertilizer Scam” is another instance where the executive power to execute the budget had been abused. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism bared the huge disbursements of the Department of Agriculture shortly before the May 2004 elections. The Center alleged the funds were supposed to be fertilizer subsidies for farmers but were actually diverted to the political allies of President Arroyo because the supposed beneficiaries complained that they did not receive the subsidy from the Department of Agriculture (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism cited in the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food Report). The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the Committee on Agriculture conducted an investigation to get into the bottom of what is now called the Fertilizer Scam. The Senate issued subpoenas to public officials implicated in the scandal. Private individuals, in their capacity as officers of corporations implicated in the scam were also invited to the public hearings. The Senate report states that the administration raised funds for the election campaign by illegally diverting the Department of Agriculture's fertilizer subsidies to the farmers. This sizeable fund of about P728 million was disbursed to the national and local elective officials who composed the political coalition of the administration.