BACOLOD CITY (THE PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has urged the nation to be prepared for any terror attack as the fighting in Marawi City wound down.

Duterte said on Sunday (Oct 22) the ideology of the pro-ISIS terrorists who laid siege to Marawi was "dedicated to killing human beings."

"I'm not trying to scare you. Let us just be prepared for any eventuality," he said in a speech in Bacolod City.

"Terrorism is everywhere. No nation has escaped from the clutches of the evil of the (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) ideology dedicated to just kill human beings and destroy places," he said.

Government troops are trying to end the fighting in Marawi on Sunday, with a handful of Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists making a last stand in a two-story building by Lanao Lake.

Duterte declared the city "liberated from terrorists' influence" on Tuesday, marking "the beginning of rehabilitation."

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that the lifting of martial law that Duterte had clamped on Mindanao to quell the terrorist uprising would be discussed before the end of October.

Duterte said, however, that martial law in Mindanao would stay until the last terrorist had been killed.