Philippine Presidential Election and the South China Sea: Navigating Maritime Dispute with China
Speaker: Marites D. Vitug, Author, Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case Against China; Chair Emeritus of the Board, Journalism for Nation Building Foundation; Editor-at-Large, Rappler
Chair: James Robson, James C. Kralik, and Yunli Lou Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Harvard College Professor; Victor and William Fung Director, Asia Center, Harvard University
Marites Dañguilan Vitug, a leading Filipino investigative journalist and author, is editor-at-large for Rappler and chair emeritus of the Journalism for Nation Building Foundation. She was editor of Newsbreak magazine, a trailblazer in Philippine investigative journalism.
Her books include Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won its Maritime Case against China; Shadow of Doubt: Probing the Supreme Court (which exposed critical weaknesses in the country’s highest court); Power from the Forest: The Politics of Logging; Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao (with Glenda M. Gloria); and, with Criselda Yabes, Jalan Jalan: A Journey through EAGA. She is among the contributors of a 2021 book, “Maritime Issues and Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific,” published by Palgrave/Macmillan.
She was the host of a series of podcasts, “The Great Asian Pushback,” which featured personalities who shared their stories of defiance and hope in countries where democracy is under threat, produced by the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats.
Marites sits on the advisory board of “Analyzing War,” a US-based journal.
Marites has a degree in A.B. Broadcast Communication from the University of the Philippines and pursued postgraduate studies in world politics from the London School of Economics. She was a Harvard Nieman fellow and Asian Public Intellectual and has won awards for her books and reporting on Philippine justice, security, and political affairs, including the Courage in Journalism Award from the US-based International Women’s Media Foundation.