Greater Philippines

Greater Philippines (Spanish: La Gran Filipinas) is an irredentist concept in the Philippines supporting the inclusion of the Spanish East Indies and eastern Sabah as a part of the country's territory. The term may also extend to various other proposed scenarios that include any or all of the following: Scarborough Shoal, the Macclesfield Bank, and the Spratly Islands (officially claimed by the government as the ).
Areas under the concept
Spanish East Indies
All the territories belonging to the Spanish East Indies which includes the Philippines, Guam, and several Pacific island nations.
Philippine Archipelago
The Philippine Archipelago is the core component of Greater Philippines. As described in Article 1 of the 1987 Constitution, the Philippine Archipelago is part of Philippine territory. This provision has appeared in the 1935 Philippine Constitution for the first time, since the 1899 Malolos Constitution has specified only the areas under Spanish control, including the rest of the Spanish East Indies.
Benham Rise
The Benham Rise (officially known in the Philippines as the "Philippine Rise") is a seismically active undersea region and extinct volcanic ridge located in the Philippine Sea approximately east of the northern coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela. The UN officially approved the Philippines' territorial claim to the Benham Plateau in April 2012.
Spratly/Kalayaan Islands
The Philippine claim for the Spratly Islands was based on the voyage and the annexation of Admiral Tomás Cloma, Sr., who relinquished all his rights to the Philippine government in the 1970s.
Scarborough Shoal
The Philippine government also claims Scarborough Shoal, which it calls "Bajo de Masinloc and Panatag Shoal, as part of its territory, citing its position within the country's Exclusive Economic Zone. The Philippines places the shoal under the jurisdiction of Masinloc, Zambales, which is on the Luzon mainland 124 nautical miles to the east.
Macclesfield Bank
Macclesfield Bank, located east of the Paracel Islands, distantly southwest of Pratas Island and north of the Spratly Islands, is claimed by China and Taiwan (Republic of China).
Some sources state that the Philippines claims this underwater feature. Philippine Ambassador Jose Zaide, however wrote that the Philippines does not claim the Macclesfield Bank.
North Borneo
Sultanate of Sulu
Between 1658 and 1700s, the Sultanate of Sulu acquiring the eastern part of the territory of northern Borneo after helping the Bruneian forces in settling a civil war. The Sulu Archipelago then came under the control of Spanish, while the area in northern Borneo was administered by the British. Under a series of agreements between the Sultanate of Brunei and Sulu, both the sultans agreed to ceded their control on west and eastern part of northern Borneo to the British in which it became known as North Borneo.
In a process of decolonisation since 1946, Great Britain included Sabah in the newly formed Federation of Malaysia. The Philippines (who already achieved its independence from the United States) under the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal however protested the formation of Malaysia and filed claims to the whole territory of northern Borneo.
The situation worsened under the administration of the then Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos who then revived the claim and trained a number of Moro fighters to reclaim the territory under a secret mission called "Operation Merdeka". Upon the recruits realising their true mission, most of them demanded to return home as they did not want to kill their fellow Muslim brothers in Sabah. But Marcos soldiers did not send them back and instead executed most of the fighters in an event called the Jabidah massacre. The tragedy sparked the South Philippines insurgency with the claim having been compounded by other new claimants from the now defunct Sultanate of Sulu. Pretenders of the Sultan of Sulu are supported by politicians in the Philippine central government to reclaim Sabah as part of the Philippine territory. The claimants and several Philippine politicians today use the Malaysian payment of 5,000 as their main reason to take over the territory as told to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). These acts solidified the position regarding claim of North Borneo by the Philippines following the establishment of Malaysia.
Per international law, the Malayan government, International law also took into account referendums in North Borneo and Sarawak that would be free and without coercion.
Territories claimed by the Philippines
The Philippines has claimed many territories throughout its history. These territories include the Spratly Islands, North Borneo, Scarborough Shoal, , Orchid Island, the Sangihe Islands, the Mariana Islands, and the Caroline Islands.

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