ALBAY 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman will retire from public office when his current three-year term as a lawmaker of the House of Representatives ends in 2025.

Lagman, 82, a lawyer, has served in all three branches of government, with over 30 years of service in Congress.

Saying he thinks he has done almost all the things he wanted to do, he told The Manila Times on Thursday in its live streaming program "PrimeTimes with Atty. Lia" that he could retire from public office but not from politics.

"This will be my last term; this will be my last public office or elected office," he said.

Lagman said that after his term, he would devote his time most probably to his grandchildren.

"I have 18 grandchildren, and I have four great-grandchildren, so I have a lot to give attention to," he said in Filipino.

Before becoming a lawmaker, Lagman had served as an undersecretary of the Department of Budget and Management.

He said he really liked being in the legislature because this involved policymaking.

"You're writing laws not for a few but for everybody," he said.

The reason he did not seek a local position was because legislation was what he really wanted to do, Lagman added.

"But, if you ask me, as a lawyer, I wish I had been in the Supreme Court," he said with a smile, then added: "But you know, that's monastic."

Lagman is among the authors of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law, the law criminalizing enforced disappearances and the law that abolished the death penalty.

He said that "the test of a good law is not in its phraseology, but it is in its full and adequate implementation by the executive branch. "So I will follow this, even if I am not anymore in public office," he said.

Among the bills he has authored are the absolute divorce bill and the adolescent pregnancy prevention bill.

He is also among the authors of the law on compensation for victims of human rights violations during martial law.

Lagman is president of the Liberal Party.

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