The Armed Forces reorganization acts passed in 1936 led to the decision to militarize Constabulary (Police) officers into organized fighting units.

Most of the 1st Regiment and all of the 2nd had been guarding public utilities and other targets of potential sabotage in the Manila metro area.

T12 half-tracks and Bren gun carriers were assigned to the 2nd Division which marks the first time that armor was used by the Philippine Army in war.

On 9 April 1942, the starving defending Fil-American forces, including the 2nd Division, surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army on Bataan.

After the enemy forces organized the surrendered troops into one large group, all Filipinos and Americans began the long walk from Mariveles, Bataan to Camp O'Donnell in Capas, Tarlac.

Its first headquarters was in Camp Vicente Lim in Canlubang, Calamba City and later, was moved to Barangay Sampaloc, Tanay, Rizal.

It is strategically situated 70 kilometers east of Manila at the foothills of the scenic Sierra Madre Mountains, at an elevation of 1,400 feet above sea level.

Battling these destructive elements, with both military and criminal aspects, hearkens back to the Constabulary roots of the 2nd Division.

In August 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte pulled out the 68th and 74th Infantry Battalion from Southern Luzon and reassigned them to Basilan in order to aid against the Abu Sayyaf Group.

The current mission of the 2nd Infantry Division is to conduct Focused Military Operations while sustaining support to the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC), to decisively defeat the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC) armed groups and deny their manpower, financial, and logistical resources in order to bring them back to the breaking point of their collapse and eventual end of insurgency in Regions 4A and 4B (except Palawan) that will create a safe and sound environment—both physically and psychologically—conducive for development and commerce.