Manila, March 31 -- The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will ask lawmakers to study the imposition of penalties against Filipinos who depart the country illegally.

"The country has no specific law penalizing illegal departures. Cases may fall under related violations such as falsification of public documents or tampering under the Philippine Passport Act," Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said in a news release on Monday.

The BI chief believed that criminalizing such act will help stop human trafficking incidents.

"But criminalizing illegal exits would serve as a strong deterrent to traffickers and would make victims think twice in accepting such offers," Viado explained.

The BI made the recommendation after the recent repatria...