About Armor Division

One of the Philippine Army’s Major Unit or PAMU, the Armor (Pambato) Division is a combined arms organization composed of Tank, Cavalry and Mechanized Infantry. The Armor family is a combination of strength and flexibility ready to undertake anything that lies ahead of them. Team Armor is adaptive to whatever scenario In other words, we bend but we do not break.” The Division was then called the Philippine Army Light Armor Regiment (PALAR) and was upgraded to Light Armor Brigade in March 19, 1986. In 2006, it was again upgraded to Light Armor Division, renamed as Mechanized Infantry Division in 2011 and finally redesignated as the Armor (Pambato) Division in 2019.

The Moniker “Pambato” was first used in 1976 during its PALAR days. It was said then that Pambato means “piling yunit ng hukbong katihan na panlaban sa larangan ng pakikidigma.” This is pronounced “pambato”’ with stress at the second syllable “ba” synonymous with “panlaban” which is translated in English as “bet” or the single best unit/person/item amongst a group in the same category, in the hope of winning the field or game they are playing.