Police fret over 'Gangnam Bomb' firecracker

As the mega-hit single "Gangnam Style" by South Korean musician PSY continues to sweep the globe like colossal tsunami and made some world leaders as well as simple people on the dance floor sway with its music, Filipinos in the illegal firecrackers business in Bulacan province might have found inspiration in it and produced what they call "Gangnam Bomb." Amid the buzz about the Gangnam Bomb as the New Year draws near, a police official on Thursday expressed concern that the potentially dangerous firecracker may slip unnoticed into the underground market. “This has been the talk of the town in Bocaue in Bulacan and other areas where firecrackers and pyrotechnic materials are manufactured,” said Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta, director of the Firearms and Explosives Office of the Philippine National Police. “We still don’t know what it looks like and how it works, we only heard about it based on our intelligence works,” Petrasanta told reporters, adding the product is may be still being “perfected” by manufacturers, or the retailers have been very discreet in their operation due to threat of massive crackdown by the police.   Obviously, illegal firecracker manufacturers are riding on the popularity of  Gangnam Style, which recently made history after hitting one billion views in the popular video-sharing site YouTube.   The dance hit catapulted songwriter PSY to international stardom as even Hollywood stars and international personalities have been hitting the floor the Gangnam Style way. Recently, a photo of President Benigno Aquino dancing Gangnam Style with his grandnephew is making rounds on the Internet through social media. Raids Petrasanta said, “We have been aggressively conducting raids on factories of illegal firecrackers and we are even on guard against the vendors who would sell those illegal and dangerous products.” Aside from the Gangnam Bomb, cops are also on the lookout for other pyrotechnics: "Goodbye Bading" that would emit a shrill sound before the loud explosion, and "End of the World," which is apparently in reference to the "December 21" doomsday that recently became an Internet buzz. He said that the three new illegal firecracker products will certainly be on the police order of battle, noting that the names already connote violation of the 0.2 gram maximum content of firecracker based on the law.   “We also warn the consumers not to patronize these products because we will not hesitate to arrest them if ever we catch them in possession of those illegal items,” Petrasanta said. — LBG, GMA News