Ambassador Armando Madamba retired from his post as Deputy Chief of Staff, with the rank of Vice Admiral, of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in November 1994. He graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree and a regular commission with the Philippine Navy.

He served in various shipboard billets and staff duties up to 1969, when he left for graduate studies in the United States where he obtained the degrees of Master in International Affairs (1970) and Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (1971) from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts. He specialized in development economics, comparative politics, and international organizations and legal systems.

After years of service in the field in the southern Philippines, he was assigned as Political Affairs Attaché at the Philippine Embassy in Tehran, from 1975 to 1980. Between 1981 and 1986 he was with the Philippine Navy as Chief of Personnel and as Commander, Naval Intelligence and Security Force and concurrently Chief of Intelligence, from 1986 to 1987.

In 1987 to 1988 he attended the Naval Command College course for Senior International Officers at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Soon after his return to Manila, he was designated as Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He was promoted to his last post as the third highest in the Philippine military in August 1993.