MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine National Police said on Monday it is still verifying the existence of the audio recording that purportedly documented the gruesome killings in Maguindanao province.

Chief Superintendent Felicisimo Khu, head of Task Force Alpha, said that the audio recording was supposedly in the possession of one of the Mangudadatu lawyers.

“The problem is it was never given to us. That’s why there is immediately a question on the admissibility of that. It was not turned over to the SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operative) or to the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) who were gathering evidence at the crime scene," Khu said in Filipino.

He said that this audio recording was in one of the cell phones of the victims and was retrieved at the funeral parlor.

Two other cell phones in police custody showed no indications of text or audio messages documenting the crime.

"So far ang nakalagay dun mga text messages lang, which has nothing to do with the crime (So far, these contain text messages which has nothing to do with the crime)," Khu said.

One of the phones under police custody is that owned by the wife of Buluan town Vice-mayor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu, who was among the 57 victims – mostly women and journalists – killed in the massacre last November 23.

Khu said police are now coordinating with the Mangudadatus to retrieve the cell phone reportedly containing the audio recording of the killings.