About Marites Dañguilan Vitug
Marites is one of the Philippines’ most accomplished journalists and authors. For close to a decade, Vitug – a Nieman fellow – edited Newsbreak magazine, a trailblazer in Philippine investigative journalism. Her recent book, Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case Against China, has become a bestseller.
She is among the authors who contributed to a 2021 book, Maritime Issues and Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific, published by Palgrave/Macmillan.
Marites has won a number of awards including the Philippine National Book Award in journalism for Rock Solid, for her pioneering book, Power from the Forest: the Politics of Logging, and Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao with Glenda M. Gloria.
She has written a number of books on the Philippine Supreme Court as well. Shadow of Doubt: Probing the Supreme Court was the first book by a journalist that exposed the critical weaknesses of the Court.
She is also the author, with Criselda Yabes, of Jalan Jalan: A Journey through EAGA. Asiaweek chose the book as one of the best books on Asia in 1999.
Marites was given the Courage in Journalism Award by the US-based International Women’s Media Foundation for her exposes on the plunder of Palawan’s forests.
She is chair emeritus of the Journalism for Nation Building Foundation, a spin off of Newsbreak.