Mara Cepeda , Author at RAPPLER

About Mara Cepeda

Mara Cepeda writes about politics, local governance, and women’s rights for Rappler. She covers the Office of the Vice President, the Senate of the Philippines, and the opposition forces against President Rodrigo Duterte. Before this, she was a beat reporter for the House of Representatives.

She is trailing the presidential campaign of Vice President Leni Robredo for the 2022 elections.

In 2021, Mara was chosen as one of 17 seasoned journalists for the prestigious Asia Journalism Fellowship of the Singapore-based Temasek Foundation and the Institute of Policy Studies at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

She was also among the 19 young journalists selected for the Reham al-Farra Memorial Journalism Fellowship to cover the United Nations 76th General Assembly.

Mara previously covered two national elections: the presidential bid of then-vice president Jejomar Binay in 2016 and the senatorial campaign of the Otso Diretso opposition slate in 2019.

Mara graduated cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in communication in 2015. She was the editor-in-chief of The GUIDON, the university’s official student publication.

In her spare time, Mara loves to read books, binge-watch her favorite series on Netflix, and play non-stop on her Switch. She is a proud fur mom and would die for her dogs.