A Filipino community leader in New Zealand brought honor to the Philippines after she was named as one of the awardees of the Queen’s Service Medal there, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday.

Philippine officials in New Zealand held an on-the-spot essay writing and poster-making contests in time for the 113th anniversary of the declaration of Philippine Independence.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said a Filipino perished in the deadly tornado that struck the city of Auckland and its suburbs on Tuesday.

A ninth Filipino was confirmed dead in the magnitude-6.3 quake that hit Christchurch last month, New Zealand police said.

Migrants’ advocacy group Migrante-Aotearoa on Friday warned Filipino nurses planning to work in New Zealand not to fall for a purported English-language proficiency program that’s actually a scam which drives many nurses into debt as their families sell assets at home just to pay for “exorbitant” tuition and recruitment fees.

The number of Filipino fatalities in last month’s magnitude-6.3 quake that hit New Zealand rose to seven on Thursday.

The New Zealand (NZ) police identified on Tuesday the fifth Filipino victim — Valquin Descalsota Bensurto, 23 — who died in a magnitude-6.3 quake that hit Christchurch in New Zealand on February 21.

New Zealand police have identified a third Filipina fatality in the magnitude-6.3 quake that hit the Christchurch area last month.

The New Zealand police on Thursday released the identity of a second Filipino national who was among the victims of the magnitude-6.3 quake there in February.

Eleven Filipinos, and not 12 as earlier reported, remain missing in the magnitude-6.3 quake that killed 146 people in New Zealand last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.