About 400 former members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), who were integrated into the Philippine National Police, refused to follow orders that they should be shipped out of Jolo to Maguindanao, for alleged involvement in a clash with the Marines during a protest rally on Monday.

"That order gave the impression they were responsible for the two-day encounter between the combined police-army force against the Marines during the protest rally for former MNLF chairman Nur Misuari who is now detained in southern Luzon for rebellion charges," said an official, who requested anonymity.

"The former MNLF policemen said they would not surrender their firearms. They demanded the pull out of the army men and the Marines, too. They warned of going back to the hills if their demands were not met," the same official said.

Authorities earlier asked the Marines to return to barracks.

The authorities were pressured and have decided to ship out members of the Scout Rangers and the army from Jolo next week, said Jolo board member Edie Badile in a television interview. Once implemented, military presence in Jolo will be virtually zero, except for the Marines.

Jolo has remained a ghost town. The Jolo public market was open, but very few establishments kept shop. All schools remained closed, said Badile.

Meanwhile, those who held Monday's protest rally complained about the proposed shipping out of the police and the army men. "They said the Marines might attack them when they hold protest rallies for Misuari," said Badile.

Other Jolo residents believe the absence of the police and the army would embolden Misuari's men and members of the Abu Sayyaf to enter their town, sources said, adding the presence of the Marines would make their town a battlefield. "People started to evacuate," sources added.

Residents also condemned conflicting reports in the media about the two-day clash, adding this has "inflamed those who are loyal to Misuari", sources said.

Lawyer UIka Ulama, spokesperson of the "Concerned Citizens of Sulu", organisers of the rallies, asked for a congressional investigation into the two incidents, adding the conflict between the law enforcement agencies "is so serious (it) must be stopped immediately". Jolo police chief Akmad Omar flew to Jolo yesterday and met with military officials to persuade the pro-Misuari policemen to leave the island. "We will do everything to bring peace back to Jolo," Omar said.

"We need to defuse the tension in the province. We don't want a repeat of the two-day clashes," said southern command's operations chief, Col Roland Detabali.

"Misuari himself was wide-eyed and as surprised as anybody about what happened in Jolo," said his lawyer Elly Pamatong.

The two-day clashes left 37 people dead, but the military said only 21 died and 50 were wounded. The conflict began when former MNLF policemen detained two Marines in civilian clothes and arms during the pro-Misuari rally.

A jeep load of Marines arrived and tried to rescue their comrades, firing into the air to disperse the crowd. Other eyewitnesses claimed the soldiers fired on the crowd. On the second day, a combined force of the police and the army retaliated and killed five marines on board a jeep, near a public market.

Four hundred MNLF fighters were integrated into the police, 4,000 to the Armed Forces, after Misuari and the government forged a pro-autonomy peace settlement in 1996.