"I want to put a positive spin on all the anger and lamentation about Baguio’s decline and penchant for tree-slaughter, when it’s the trees that make us what we are, and it’s the trees that save us, again and again. This is what I have to say: Let’s not forget that there are still pockets of Baguio where people, places, and happenings move against the stream, even if it means swimming upriver against a tide of pollution and garbage. As a good friend of mine put it, discovering one such secret makes you want to turn over every stone to see what good is still hidden here. If this is how we are to reclaim our city, by taking charge of the spaces available to us, then that is what some of us must and shall continue to do, even in the face of constant disregard for culture, economic bullying, and direct ambush from the corporations that have come to rule the city."