FOUR lawmakers filed a bill on Monday to amend Republic Act 7941, or the Party-List System Act. House Bill 7074, which proposes the Revised Party-List System Act, “seeks to restore the true intent of the law” as well as “guarantees that marginalized sectors have a real voice in Congress, enabling them to fight for their rights and welfare,” Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno, one of the bill’s authors, said in a statement. Co-authoring the bill with Diokno are Akbayan Representatives Perci Cendaña and Dadah Ismula and Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao. The bill, the House’s counterpart of Sen. Risa Hontiveros’ Senate Bill 1656, has an anti-political dynasty provision. HB 7074 bars the following from becoming or substituting for a party-list nominee: the spouse or kin “within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity of an incumbent elective official,” of a party-list group nominee, or of “a candidate for any elective public office in the same election.” Under HB 7074, party-list nominees, representatives, and organizations are prohibited from having a contract with the government to supply goods or services or a contract “to perform construction or other works.” It also bars them from serving “as a partner, director, officer, member, or stockholder of any corporation, partnership, or entity that holds any such contract.”The bill seeks to mandate the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to “deny or cancel the registration of” party-list groups with names “confusingly similar” to television or radio program titles, government activities, and public figures’ names.Registered party-list groups with names that fall within the prohibitions under it must “adopt and register a compliant name” with the Comelec within six months from its effectivity. HB 7074 will remove the three-seat cap on party-list groups to “enable full democratic and proportional representation,” the lawmakers said in the bill’s explanatory note.