After a failed tryout at quarterback with the Philadelphia Eagles recently, Tim Tebow’s dream of returning to the National Football League “may be more like a mirage,” says a beat writer for the Orlando (Florida) Sentinel.
But George Diaz says Tebow, the American football star turned TV analyst, remains a “real deal in so many endeavors.”
Born in Makati City while his parents built a Christian ministry in Mindanao, Tebow is scheduled to attend the May 1 opening of the Tebow CURE Hospital in Davao City’s progressive Lanang district.
The Tebow Foundation, a major donor to the facility, guards his privacy like Fort Knox that confirmation of the athlete’s presence in Davao has been difficult.
However, the CURE office in Davao told me that the former Denver Broncos quarterback made a commitment last year to attend the facility’s formal opening.
CURE said that pledge from a Christian role model weighed a lot in putting things in place for the opening.
Tebow, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and CURE International president Dale Brantner are expected at the simple ribbon-cutting rites.
Joining them will be local and national bureaucrats, officials from the Department of Health and people from the United States Embassy in Manila.
Leron Lehman, the hospital’s executive director, said it was his understanding that if Tim shows up, he will spend only four days in the Philippines. “The only public events he will make are at our events for the hospital,” Lehman said.
The six-story facility, intended mostly for poor Mindanao children with critical orthopedic needs, has been on a soft opening mode since November 2014 when it received an official operating license and opened its doors to patients right away.
Its first ever surgery was performed on a 16-year-old girl who will be able to walk without difficulty after her Achilles tendon was surgically repaired.
The $3-million hospital, built in partnership with CURE International, a non-profit that operates charitable hospitals and programs in 30 countries, will have 30 rooms and three operating rooms.
It is expected to do at least 500 surgeries a year on mostly impoverished children with cleft lips, clubfoot, bowed legs, untreated burns and hydrocephalus.
Major funding was made possible by the Tebow Foundation, the Sacred Heart Foundation of California and several local donors.
Its staff of 54 health professionals is led by three orthopedic surgeons, an American, Dr. Timothy Mead, and two local practitioners, Drs. Esperidion Reyes and Carlito Valera.
“I have always had great love and passion for the Filipino people,” Tebow, 27, told People Magazine recently. “It is so exciting to be able to provide healing and care for these incredibly deserving children halfway around the world.
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Games and Amusements Board chair Juan Ramon Guanzon, who drew the ire of the Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines for declaring two of its elite boxers professionals, said he does not “dislike” boxing.
“To this day, I am still the president of the Negros Amateur Boxing Association and owner of a pro boxing gym in Bacolod City,” says Guanzon. “Donnie Nietes, the longest reigning Filipino boxing champion first fought as a nine year old in NABA tournaments.”