The Light Reaction Regiment's origins can be traced back to the year 1995 when the Armed Forces of the Philippines started building its first dedicated counter-terrorism unit within the 1st Special Forces Regiment (Airborne) under the now defunct Philippine Army Special Operations Command (PASOC).

After the Ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States, and a series of kidnappings and hostage takings of American & other foreign nationals by the Abu-Sayyaf Group in the year 2000.

After years of training under American instructors, the LRC was officially activated on 1 February 2004[4] and was tasked to be deployed in Mindanao in order to combat Abu Sayyaf Group terrorists responsible for abducting several foreign hostages,[5] with the unit conducting an operation to rescue Gracia Burnham from Abu Sayyaf terrorists.

[7] The LRC had been involved in a rescue operation conducted on a kidnapped Italian priest named Giancarlo Bossi by armed men from a rogue MILF group in 2007.

[17][14] In 2014, the LRR conducted a trojan horse operation at a drag race to either kill or capture Abu Sayyaf target Sihata Latip, who was wanted for kidnapping 21 people in Malaysia in 2000.

He went on to conduct a string of kidnappings in the Philippines over subsequent years, but as the Philippines got better at counter terrorism operations, the Islamists were cut off from overseas international terror-finance networks, particularly the ones originating in Saudi Arabia and in order to make up for this loss in income, they engage in kidnapping for ransom.

When they arrived at the drag race, the LRR operators identified their High Value Target from about 50 civilians and terrorists, approached and drew weapons.

The operators loaded up the two bodies and made their getaway, while being shot at by Abu Sayyaf and Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Prior to being qualified for the Light Reaction Regiment’s Selection and Assessment a candidate must be a graduate of either or both the Scout Ranger Course (SRC) or the Special Forces Operations Course (SFOC) with at least three (3) years worth of combat experience.

Roots of the Light Reaction School came from SATD, composed of USSF instructors with the graduates of Counter Terrorist Class One assisting instructors created in 2002 in order to make way for the future training requirement of the Counter Terrorist Course Class Two and Three in the pipeline, on July 15, 2004, it was replaced by the Selection & Training Platoon, a platoon under the LRB's HQ company.

Due to the increase of instructors, on July 1, 2012, the Selection & Training Platoon was deactivated and replaced by a company-sized SATD separate from the HQ company.

As the LRB was activated as a regiment-wide unit, on January 1, 2014, the SATD was renamed CTDTS to meet the expansion which is approved by the LRR'S HHC.