Game of Thrones between the two strongest families in the Philippines have recovered as the noise and colors of the two months of election campaign fade.

President Ferdinand "Bonbon" Marcos Jr and his vice president, Sara Duterte, were caught in a bitter dispute and fought for power.

As allies, they won a landslide victory in the last presidential election in 2022.

But, as their relationship broke down - he accused her of threatening to assassinate him, she accused him of being powerless and said she dreamed of beheading him - this midterm election has become a key barometer of the power of both political dynasties.

The results are not good news for Camp Marcos. Typically, the current Philippine president elects most of the Senate draft picks in the midterm elections. The power of presidential sponsorship is an important advantage, at least the past has been the past.

But not this time.

Only six of the twelve winning senators came from the Marcos League, with Camille Villar only half of his camp as she also accepted Sara Duterte’s approval.

Four senators were at the Duterte camp, including the president's sister Imee Marcos. Before any Marcos candidate, two are the top three.

This is a bad result for the current president.

Senators were elected by a simple national vote, which was a good indication of the national opinion. The result could weaken the authority of the Marcos administration in the last three years of his term and remain unwavering with Sara Duterte's plans.

Marcos-Dutert's relationship has been deteriorating since the government began three years ago. But it didn't completely break until this year.

The decision by the presidential allies of Congress to begin to impeach the vice president was the first irreparable violation.

Then, in March, President Marcos sent Sara's father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, to the International Criminal Court, facing charges of crime against humanity, his brutal war on drugs. Police have also filed criminal charges against her now.

The gloves were extinguished. The impeachment would result in Sara Duterte being banned from office, ending her ambition to replace President Marcos in the next election.

Now, she is the leader, and few people suspect that if successful, she would use the president's power to seek revenge against Marcos.

But the impeachment requires two-thirds of the Senate vote for 24 seats, which is why this midterm election is so important to both camps.

Politics in the Philippines is a family business. Once a family gains political power, it sticks to it and passes it on to generations.

Despite about 200 influential families, Duters and Marcos are located at the top of the pyramid.

Marcos has been politically for 80 years. The current president's father ruled from 1965 to 1986 that martial law was enacted and billions of dollars were plundered from the state's wallet.

Bongbong Marcos' mother Imelda voted from a wheelchair at the age of 95, a more infamous figure than just her shoe collection.

His sister Imee has decided to defect to Duterte Camp and has been re-elected in the Senate.

His eldest son, Sandro, is a member of MP, and his cousin, Martin Romualdez, is a spokesperson for the House of Commons and a presidential candidate for 2028 - probably why Bongbong Marcos is so keen to drive Sara Duterte.

In the president's hometown of Ilocos Norte, his wife's cousin was elected governor, his nephew was elected as lieutenant governor, and two other cousins ​​were elected as city councillors. There, Marcos always wins.

On the other side of the country, the Dutertes are in Davao strongholds, and so are the Dutertes.

Even in the prison cell in The Hague, former Duterte president ran for mayor of Davao, and although all voters saw him as a life-sized cardboard cutout, it was easy to win.

His absence is not important, though, as the former mayor was his son Sebastian, who now takes over the job of deputy mayor. Dutertes has been the mayor of Davao for the past 37 years.

The problem with both camps is that senators are often from large political families, or from celebrities themselves—many candidates come from media or entertainment backgrounds.

They have their own interests and ambitions. Even formally aligned with one camp or another, there is no guarantee that they will be loyal, especially on the issue of improvisation.

“Senators in the Philippines are very sensitive to national public opinion because they consider themselves vice presidents or training presidents,” said Cleve Arguelles, a political scientist who runs WR Numero Research, which monitors public opinion.

“So, because of their future political ambitions, they have been trying to read the public’s mind and take a public opinion attitude.”

In recent months, public sentiment has not stood by the president.

Bongbong Marcos has never been a great public speaker and his stage appearance on the campaign has not made his flag popular.

His management of the economy was struggling, earning lower results in the polls, and his decision to detain former President Duterte and send him to the International Criminal Court was portrayed by the Duterte family as a state betrayal.

At an impromptu rally in Tondo, a low-income community in Manila’s port, Sara Duterte plays an emotional video of her father’s detention at the international airport in Manila and traveling to The Hague on a private jet. She describes it as an unforgivable treatment of the still-popular former president.

She told the cheering crowd: "Not only did they kidnap my father, they stole him from us."

President Marcos's sister Imee is also on the stage, she disagreed with extradition and jumped the boat to Camp Duterte - although most observers see this as a cynical move to capitalize on Duterte's mass support, so she can hold up her own flagbearer to keep the Senate seat.

It works. From underestimation to most of the campaign, Imee Marcos managed to scrape into the "Magic Twelve" they called the winning senator.

What's going on now is hard to predict, but the Marcos camp must have faced an uphill battle to get Sarah Duterte to impeach each.

Of the 24 senators, only a few are automatically loyal to the president. The rest will have to be convinced to accompany it, which is not easy.

The election shows that the Dutertes still have a lot of public support in some areas, and some in the Marcos Election Coalition have recorded that they oppose the reincarnation of the vice president. The same is true for the 12 senators who did not participate in the election this year.

A highlight of the president may be the unexpected elections of Senators Bam Aquino and Francis Pangilinan from political liberals.

Few polls predict their victory, suggesting the public's desire for politicians beyond the Marcos-Duterte dispute.

None of the friends of the Marcos family - Liberals are the main opposition to the Marcos Duterte team in the 2022 election.

But they strongly oppose former President Duterte's strong-witted style and may be worried that his daughter will become president in 2028. This may be enough to get them to vote for impeachment.

The improvisation trial is expected to begin in July. It is expected that the Dutertes will continue to be the authority of the president being beaten in public, both camps will lobby behind the scenes to keep the Senators standing by their side.

Never have Impotted the President or Vice President in the Philippines. No president and vice president is that serious.

It will be a turbulent year.