With established agencies and authorized codes of conduct designed for more
systematized operations, many difficulties arise. In its current configuration, if the AHA
center operated as a hub for coordination, it would not be able to adequately facilitate
and assist in satisfying the needs of all member countries should there be a disaster of
large enough scale to affect all member countries at the same time. The initiative to
stock rice and food to be used as back-up supplies for the affected countries within the
region will fall short when such a large scale disaster is in effect. SASOP is effective at
the regional to national level. However, the difficulties vary when SASOP needs to be
integrated into on-the-ground operations. In one dimension, developing the same
standards for conducting operations at different levels of government systems is
impossible. In another dimension, SASOP is only at the beginning of its trial period, so
it is difficult for each nation to develop the national-regional-local standard procedures
that can be integrated into a larger ASEAN regional system. Although the ERAT
program aims to create mutual understanding and agreed steps of operation, there is a
lack of emphasis on assisting an individual nation design and develop its own coherent
standard operating procedures (SOPs). Hopefully, ERAT can also extend to other areas
of professional assistance, such as medical and technical protocols, which require
specific licenses to operate. The strict regulations on the certification of certain
professionals is intended to make sure that the assistance provided is accurate; however,
there is an insufficient number of search and rescue personnel at present.