The Automobile Association Philippines (AAP) is the country’s biggest and oldest auto club. It was founded in 1931 as the Philippine Motor Association (PMA), a non-stock, non-profit organization committed to the general welfare of motorists in the Philippines.

PMA was organized by prominent motoring enthusiasts like Jorge B. Vargas, the country’s first Executive Secretary, Carlos P. Romulo, the fourth and only Filipino president of the United Nations General Assembly, Albino Z. Sycip, the “Dean of Philippine Banking,” a number of American expats, and a few more big name businessmen at the time. It became affiliated with the Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT) in 1951 and in the next year, with the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the world’s largest auto club federation and governing body for four-wheel motor sport worldwide. In 2004, the AIT merged with the FIA.

In 1953, President Elpidio Quirino officially designated PMA as the National Auto Club. In 1963, it was authorized to issue the Philippine International Driving Permit (PIDP) following the policies of the 1968 Vienna Convention of the United Nations on Road Traffic and Road Signs and Signals.

PMA’s first office was located at one of the floors of the old Manila Hotel and was relocated in 1937 to one of the Legarda-Hermanos buildings on R. Hidalgo St. in Quiapo, Manila.

Soon after the war, PMA moved to the various offices of its incumbent presidents until the 1980s when PMA acquired its own property at 683 Aurora Blvd., Quezon City. AAP now maintains its office at AAP Tower, 683 Aurora Boulevard, Quezon City, its Auto Care Service Center at 682 Aurora Boulevard, Quezon City and its (extension) offices in Alabang, Makati, Lipa, San Fernando, Pampanga, Cebu and Davao.