MANILA - Mayor Vico Sotto is the "best gift ever" to Pasig City, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Thursday as he posted a picture of the young mayor distributing medical supplies during Luzon's month-long lockdown.

In the photo, Sotto wore a face mask and a Pasig City utility shirt while manning a makeshift counter made out of medical supply boxes.

"Sayang he is only 29-years-old, not 39. If there is any consolation, he is the best gift ever to Pasig City," Lacson wrote in the caption of his Facebook post.

(How regretful that he is only 29 -years-old, not 39.)

Lacson did not clarify why he felt bad that Sotto was "not 39," but under the Constitution, an individual must at least be 40 years old before he or she can run for president.

Lacson lauded Sotto after the mayor earned online praise for finding ways to ensure that the local government will provide the essential needs of Pasig residents during Luzon's enhanced community quarantine.

Pasig City guaranteed to pay the full salaries of city workers during the coronavirus quarantine after agencies under the executive branch were mandated to enforce a skeletal work schedule or a work from home scheme.

• All Pasig employees to get full pay during COVID-19 quarantine: Vico Sotto

Sanitation tents were placed in entrances of the city hall and all hospitals in Pasig City.

Mobile kitchens were also mounted in the Eastern Metro Manila City to ensure that frontline workers manning Pasig's 10 gateways and hospitals will not run out of food.

Sotto also appealed to the national government to exempt some tricycles from the ban on public transportation as some residents requiring dialysis or other urgent medical treatments have no means to immediately reach hospitals.

• Vico Sotto appeals for exemption of tricycles from public transport ban during Luzon lockdown

"Sa risk assessment na ginawa namin, mas marami hong mamamatay pag hindi na po pinayagan ang mga tricycle. 'Yung mga nagda-dialysis, 'yung mga post-surgery na kailangan magpacheck-up, kailangan pumunta sa ospital... paano po siya pupunta?" he said.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government rejected Sotto's appeal, saying allowing exemptions would "defeat the entire purpose of the quarantine."

Sotto loaned bicycles to health workers after the DILG rejected his request to allow tricycles to shuttle frontline officials.

• Pasig City taps bikes for transportation of health workers