Published January 7, 2021, 2:33 PM Lawmakers welcomed Thursday the Duterte government’s creation of a technical working group (TWG) that would focus on the new COVID-19 variants. House Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Anakalusugan partylist Rep. Michael Defensor lauded the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to form a panel that would strengthen the country’s readiness against the new COVID-19 variant from the United Kingdom. “This is a welcome development. We have to face this new variant immediately, scientifically, and effectively! We have to stop the variant from reaching our shores,” Rodriguez said in a Viber message.