New Delhi, July 11 -- MANILA - On the morning of July 12, 2016, fishermen from Masinloc, Zambales awoke expecting the world to change. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague had issued its ruling the day before, overwhelmingly, in the Philippines' favor on the South China Sea dispute, invalidating China's sweeping nine-dash-line claim over most of the waters. Ten years on, the fishermen are still waiting.

The Scarborough Shoal, known in the Philippines as Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag Shoal, lies roughly 220 kilometres west of the Zambales coastline. It has been a traditional fishing ground for generations of fishermen from that province, prized for its abundant reef fish. Since 2012, when Chinese vessels physically blockaded the ...