Marites Javier Dañguilan Vitug is a Filipina journalist and author who co-founded the news magazine Newsbreak. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University from 1986 to 1987.
Marites Dañguilan Vitug was raised by her parents to be a devout Catholic in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya. Her mother was a member of the Catholic Women's League, while her father was a member of the Knights of Columbus. Vitug in her youth joined the Catholic Marian society called the Sodality of Our Lady.
Vitug received her Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast communication at the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Vitug began her journalism career in the early 1980s, writing for the daily business newspaper Business Day (now BusinessWorld). Vitug cites the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. on August 21, 1983, as what prompted her to cover political issues and events such as insurgencies and protests, with the publisher of Business Day adding a political section to the paper. The first major figure she covered was Jose W. Diokno beginning 1983, whom she claimed to literally follow for three years from his home in New Manila, Quezon City to his leadership of the first street parliamentarian coalition, the "Justice for Aquino, Justice for all" or JAJA, until his last year before passing, which she deemed a second education.
Vitug's first book, titled Power from the Forest: The Politics of Logging, was published in 1993 by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She founded with fellow journalist Glenda Gloria the weekly news magazine Newsbreak, with its first issue released on January 24, 2001.
Vitug is currently the editor-at-large of the Filipino news site Rappler.