TIMELINE: The legal fight for PHL’s claims in the South China Sea

In January 2013, then President Benigno Aquino III took what was arguably his biggest fight as the Philippines' commander-in-chief before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

At the core of the Philippines' case was China's excessive claims—anchored on its unliateral nine-dash-line map. The country fears that it will lose about 80 percent of its exclusive economic zone, and some 40 percent of its aquatic resources if China had its way.

The Philippines' EEZ, on the other hand, is provided for under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed bgy 168 member-states, including both the Philippines and China.

The Philippines' case against China marked the first legal challenge raised on the territorial disputes at the South China Sea.

With China opting to ignore the tribunal's proceedings, it was a one-sided legal battle that stretched for most of Aquino's term.

The court is expected on Tuesday to decide on the Philippines' case against against its influential neighbor.

—NB, GMA News