For Filipinos, real progress is having a cashless expressway.

We were led to believe the integration of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology would eliminate bottlenecks at toll plazas, streamlining expressway travel from Metro Manila to nearby provinces.

It was to be a symbol of efficiency as it would unify toll collections on major roadways — from the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway in the north down to the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road in the south — making travel faster, smoother and more efficient not only for well-off motorists in brand new vehicles but also for those who deliver our basic goods and services.

But it’s not happening. Since its launch in October last year, the “One RFID, All Tollways” system continues to frustrate motorists.

Instead of a seamless, hassle-free glide past the sensors, motorists must keep their fingers crossed, utter a small prayer and hope the scanners will read their RFID stickers that will prompt the gates to open. There are also complaints of system errors and balance transfer issues, as well as the turtle pace of the customer service representatives.

Simply put, “One RFID, All Tollways” is a big scam — highway robbery in broad daylight.

What’s happening is not merely a technical glitch; it’s a profound disservice to the toll-paying public. Every time a scanner fails to read an RFID sticker, a chain reaction of delays ripples through the line.

For a father who had a long day at work in Makati and just wants to get home to his family in Laguna, the time wasted is not just a mere number. It represents stolen moments — time that should have been spent swapping stories over dinner with his family, helping his kids with their homework, or simply resting after a grueling 10-hour shift.

In this era where the work-life balance is prioritized, the incompetence of our tollway system is a massive burden. We are being robbed of our most precious non-renewable resource, which is time spent with our loved ones.

Furthermore, the economic impact of the delays is staggering. With fuel prices climbing stubbornly higher, every minute spent idling in a kilometer-long queue at the South or North Luzon Expressway is money burned. Watching the fuel gauge dip while waiting for a faulty sensor to spring to life is a form of torture.

For the thousands of delivery drivers and logistics workers using the One RFID system, this inefficiency bleeds into the national economy, raising the cost of goods and services for everyone.

But what makes this system doubly annoying is the fact that, despite being required to maintain load balances and attach scanners to their windshields, motorists must still wait as if they were paying with loose change.

We were told this system would make life easier, but the implementation remains murky. The frequent “Tag Not Read” error and the manual intervention of toll personnel waving handheld scanners or listing down the account numbers of One RFID cards negate the purpose of an automated system.

It is time the Department of Transportation (DoTr) and the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) stepped up and fulfilled their mandates. The public deserves a transparent audit for why these sensors were rolled out yet continue to fail at such high rates.

Is it a lack of hardware maintenance? Was the software integration fundamentally flawed? Whatever the cause, the hitches at the toll booths is not a viable transport policy.

If the private concessionaires and the governing bodies cannot guarantee a system that works, then they must be held accountable. The convenience fee we pay in the form of tolls should come with a guarantee of, well, convenience.

If the DoTr and the TRB cannot fix the “One RFID” debacle, then maybe it’s time to admit that it is a failure.

If these high-tech sensors are going to cause more traffic than a manual collector, we might as well return to the old Autosweep and Easytrip tags. At least with the old system, the expectations were clear, and we weren’t being teased with the illusion of convenience.

The Filipino motorist is remarkably patient, but that patience should not be exploited. We deserve an expressway system that respects our hard-earned money and, more importantly, our time.

The gates must open — or the system must go.