British baron’s daughter dies in Philippine drug war

Manila: A daughter of the late British baron Lord Moynihan has been killed in the Philippines where the government is waging a deadly war on drugs, police said Monday.

Maria Aurora Moynihan, 45, was shot by unknown attackers who left her by the side of a Manila street on September 10, authorities said.

Her killers left a cardboard sign accusing Moynihan of being a “drug pusher for celebrities”, Chief Inspector Tito Jay Cuden said.

The victim was on bail while facing charges of possession of illegal drugs following a February 2013 suburban Manila police raid.

“Witnesses told us they heard a series of gunshots, then saw a vehicle leaving the area. They did not see its licence plates,” Cuden said.

CCTV footage aired on local television network ABS-CBN showed a vehicle stop and open its door on the deserted part of the street where the body was later found.

“She’s considered a drug personality,” Cuden said. No arrests have been made and an investigation is continuing, he added.

Cuden said the victim, who held dual British and Filipino nationality, is a daughter of the third Baron Moynihan of Leeds, who died in 1991 in Manila where he ran a string of brothels.

Anthony Patrick Andrew Cairnes Berkeley Moynihan fled to the Philippines in the late 1960s while facing a string of fraud allegations in Britain.

The British embassy in Manila told AFP it would issue a comment on the daughter’s case later.

A sister, film actress Maritoni Fernandez, issued a brief statement on ABS-CBN last week expressing the family’s “deep shock” over the killing and pleading for privacy to mourn the death.