EDITORIAL - We've been had

Anybody remember Heidi Mendoza, the “crying lady” who provided details of corruption in the Armed Forces in a series of televised Senate hearings? Well, it seems that she has been amply rewarded for her role in that “teleserye.”

President Aquino appointed her last Tuesday as one of the commissioners at the Commission on Audit. And just like what she said as early as even during the hearings that she would accept if someday appointed, she did.

There is probably no question that she is qualified. But she should not have accepted the appointment because it has less to do with her qualifications than it has to do as a reward for her splendid performance at the hearings.

Had it been a matter of qualification, she could have landed the job even without having to tearfully testify at the Senate about how rotten and corrupt the system in the military is. To get the job only after her performance dilutes her qualification.

Now she cannot avoid questions like, despite being qualified, would she still have landed the job had she not testified? Or now that she has landed a job that came as a reward, could she still perform as objectively than if she got the same job based solely on merit?

However she goes about her new duties now, Mendoza will no longer be able to escape the stigma of merely having been used: She was brought in to do something and got paid in the process just like everybody else.

This effectively dashes the initial public perception of her — as somebody refreshingly different from the rest, the whiff of fresh air in the otherwise polluted atmosphere of military corruption.

Had Mendoza not accepted the appointment, she could have prided herself as one who merely did her civic duty at great inconvenience and risk to her personal safety, with nary a thought of personal gain or reward. But she took her prize. Now she gives us a feeling of having been had.