A hotel set to be the largest in the Philippines will be built in Boracay

Will Boracay ever be like it was before? Based on new developments set for the coming years, it doesn’t look like it.

Developer DoubleDragon Properties last week announced plans to build a hotel in Boracay that will be the country’s largest in terms of room count. The resort will be part of their Hotel 101 chain and will have 1,001 rooms. Yeah, that’s a lot.

The developer assured that it will be a “green” development and is expected to be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified building.

But this is just the latest example of how the once pristine island is getting increasingly commercialized. In December, the very first Boracay cinema opened in a mall also owned by DoubleDragon Properties.

In 2016, property developer Megaworld announced it would build a 150-hectare township called Boracay Newcoast that will act as a beachside community, similar to those in Miami and Ibiza. Parts of the area have been finished, with a Savoy hotel opening last year. Hotel101 Resort-Boracay will also rise inside Boracay Newcoast.

While Megaworld has said it is publicly committed to servicing the community and sustainably developing the area by using electric vehicles and installing solar panels, it will still bring in more people to the already crowded island.

About 1.7 million tourists visited Boracay in 2016, but the island is currently not well-equipped to take on that many people without affecting the white-sand beach people flock there for. In 2015, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources found that there was a high level of coliform — a bacteria found in human and animal wastes or decaying organisms — in Boracay’s Bulabog Beach.

Earlier this month, leaders of the Boracay Foundation Inc. and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Boracay challenged the government to take action and start protecting the island from longstanding problems like flooding and better water supply.

Boracay New Cost promises to use an underground cable system and to allot 60 percent of the area for green open spaces.

But despite calls to control the development of Boracay, it seems that the development’s plans for a “commercial and retail district,” an “exclusive residential village,” and a “cluster of mid-rise condominiums” is still going to happen. Whether or not the island can sustain that type of development while retaining its charms remains to be seen.