“This still does not deny the fact there is now a bunch of motorcyclists roaming around with a correct attitude toward road discipline and traffic rules and regulations.

Often it is the everyday characters on our streets — characters whom we dismiss as featureless and commonplace — who readily tell us more about our faults and what we can do to correct those faults.

Of the everyday characters I specially refer here are the ubiquitous street vendor and the motorcycle-taxi rider, both of whom we are familiar with since they roam around Metro Manila’s traffic-choked streets every day of the week.

Of our faults exposed by these personages on our streets I expressly mean our ideas regarding discipline, with which, going by commonplace opinion, we often believe we as a people generally lack.

We should start with street vendors since it is they who grabbed news headlines early this week when Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso indefinitely banished them from plying their wares on Ylaya Street in Divisoria, Manila.

Moreno’s expulsion of vendors from their usual place of commerce came after he found piles of trash scattered everywhere during an early morning surprise inspection.

“(They have) no initiative (to keep the place clean). If they will leave (garbage) every day, then let’s prohibit all of them,” an obviously irked Moreno complained during his inspection, aired live on Facebook and shared widely.

In the same live Facebook feed, Moreno is seen addressing some vendors with, “Are you not ashamed or are you also this messy inside your own houses? Do I really need to surprise you? I’m already giving you a chance to work.”

Later on, Moreno told reporters, “If people (and vehicles) cannot pass because (vendors) are occupying the whole street, I will make their Christmas sad. We gave them the opportunity to sell on the condition that they observe discipline.”

Many quickly agreed with what Moreno did and for good reason — the undisciplined Ylaya street vendors did break a covenant with the local government that the use of public spaces for commerce meant obligations to keep it clean.

General opinion, however, went no further than to handily condemn the vendors, with many concluding they deserved the loss of their livelihood for their evident lack of discipline. The vendors had it coming, in short.

The same common opinion also says it is only when discipline is instilled is where it is possible to correct the iterant vendor’s supposed hardheadedness and put some semblance of order on our anarchic streets.

But common opinion can only go so far. It only gives us a nebulous general definition of discipline. Most comments do not specifically define the type of discipline we need or does it tell us how we are to go about instilling discipline.

Fortunately, Mayor Domagoso’s lamentations gives us ample clues for resolving our difficulties. In fact, by paying attention to the words Moreno used in banishing vendors, we can appreciate better the discipline issue.

The key words Moreno used to catch our attention are “initiative,” “shame,” “chance to work” and, of course, “discipline.”

In order to be a little bit clearer, allow me to recast Moreno’s train of thought. Essentially, what Moreno is saying is this: when someone is given a “chance to work” that someone, if he is not “shameless,” should have the “initiative” to exercise “discipline.”

With such a working definition of discipline, I am now able to state a framework by which we get a handle on what we mean when we say discipline — discipline is a system of obligations.

There are, of course, other frameworks. But for our present purposes looking at discipline as a system of obligations gets us somewhere.

In fact, this framework helped me when I started examining the other common phenomenon on our streets, the motorcycle-taxi.

Popularly known in Manila as angkas, the popular bike-hailing service of the firm Angkas is on a six-month probationary period, ending this month. Angkas’ provisional authority to operate is part of government’s pilot-run of motorcycle taxis.

Our interests here insofar as it involves discipline has to do with the fact that with Angkas, some 20,000 people now, with corporate help, have a chance to work.

By joining Angkas, a full-time driver can make up to P1,500 a day from more than 10 trips. A driver on a part-time agreement stands to make P800 a day. The driver is also provided with helmets, uniformed jerseys or vests and insurance.

What makes Angkas interesting in regards to the discipline issue is that the individual rider must exercise genuine initiative for personal discipline to protect his livelihood. Discipline is obligated since the paramount issue with the Angkas ride-hailing service is all about safety.

Considering the notorious safety issues involving motorcycles — government say 50 percent of all road accidents involve a motorcycle — Angkas does need to have a solid reputation for road safety for it to succeed. A reputation which can only come from a responsible individual driver thoroughly informed about what he needs to do.

Observing the Angkas service on the road, the claim seems about correct. Most Angkas motorcycle riders roam at moderate speeds and, compared to other motorcycle riders, they don’t dangerously weave in and out of traffic.

Granting Angkas needs to prove its worth as a business model, since after all it is on probation, this still does not deny the fact there is now a bunch of motorcyclists roaming around with a correct attitude towards road discipline and traffic rules and regulations.

Now, contrasting the disciplined Angkas driver with our street vendor has its uses. Aside from putting suspicion on our general idea we as a people lack discipline, the contrasts also point a way out for putting back notions of discipline into our lowly but still civilized vendors.

There are many reasons given why the vendor, whom we can’t do away with, isn’t conscious of his present faults. But one conspicuous reason perhaps is that no one, not even local governments, has properly informed or educated vendors that it is far better for their welfare that they do things right. Unlike what is being done with the Angkas driver.