Motoo Konishi with his fiancée Natalie Christine Virata Jorge.
This World Bank executive spent the last 35 years of his life catalyzing programs to reduce poverty, develop infrastructure and promote inclusive growth across Asia and Africa. But Japanese national Motoo Konishi – who always wanted to retire in a place where he could roam around in shorts and flip flops – found an even more compelling reason to spend the rest of his life in the Philippines.
Living here in the last four years as World Bank’s country director was a life-changing experience for Konishi, who found sheer joy in helping the government implement social safety nets and other development programs. To top it all, he fell in love with a Filipina who matched his lifetime passion for development work.
Konishi got engaged last year to Natalie Christine “Ching” Virata Jorge, executive director of Bato Balani Foundation Inc., a non-profit foundation which manages education programs aimed to uplift the quality of education in the Philippines. So when his term as country director ended last month, Konishi decided to leave the bank ahead of what would have been his mandatory retirement schedule in 2024. He also decided to retire here in the Philippines.
He publicly announced his commitment to Jorge, who is nearly two decades his junior, on Jan. 28 in a farewell party hosted by the World Bank at Taipan in Tower Club.
“This is not something that I should be proud of but this is the first time I have made my personal decision over my commitment to the World Bank. And my commitment here is to Ching — that I’ve actually chosen her over my career,” Konishi said during that party.
Guests applauded and clinked their glasses, obliging Konishi to give his future bride a kiss.
“I think that that is something he has given a lot of thought to and finally for the first time in his life after 35 years of being committed to the bank, he is finally choosing his own personal interests. I feel loved and flattered and it’s probably the best decision he has ever made in his (laughter). But seriously, it goes both ways,
I am as committed to him as he is to me,” Jorge told the Inquirer.
The couple met a few years back in an event hosted by the Australian embassy at the residence of then Ambassador Bill Tweddell.
It was not exactly love at first sight but both knew when they met that they would be great friends.