The pop-iconization of Imelda and the success of “Here Lies Love” is an affront to the Marcoses’ surviving victims. A spokesman for Mr. Byrne told me that he was editing his libretto over the summer. Yet I’d be surprised if he adds even a passing mention of Hilda Narciso, a former church worker who was taken to a safe house for “interrogation” and repeatedly gang-raped by soldiers in Davao City in 1983. Or Mariano Pimentel, who was held for four years without charges, beaten by soldiers, buried up to his neck in a remote field and left for dead, before his serendipitous rescue by local children.
