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If you've ever fallen down a rabbit hole of Philippine travel videos — sweeping drone shots of untouched islands, documentary-style storytelling, and destinations you've never even heard of — chances are you've landed on SEFTV.
Behind the channel is Joseph Pasalo, a 32-year-old travel vlogger from Palo area of Leyte, who has quietly built one of the most respected travel channels in the country. With more than 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.8 million followers on Facebook — over three million across both platforms — his videos regularly pull in hundreds of thousands to millions of views. And here's the kicker: what looks like the work of an entire TV production crew is actually made by just two people.
SEFTV: The Waray Vlogger
Showing Us the Philippines We've Never Seen
Joseph's path to vlogging fame was anything but a straight line. After graduating with an Information Technology degree from ACLC Tacloban in 2012, he briefly worked as a job-order employee at the Department of Public Works and Highways before finding himself unemployed just months later.
He pivoted to freelance videography — covering weddings, birthdays, and local events — borrowing equipment from friends until he could afford his own gear. That grind, shooting event after event, is where he sharpened the camera skills that would later define his channel.
When vlogging started booming pre-pandemic, Joseph did what most aspiring creators did: he went to Manila to film city life. It didn't work. His channel barely got noticed. So he made the decision that changed everything — he turned his camera back toward the provinces, toward the rural Philippines that social media was largely ignoring. The timing was perfect. With people stuck at home during the pandemic, audiences were hungry to see places they couldn't visit.
From Job-Order Employee to Full-Time Storyteller
The Drone Crash That Started It All
One of the most charming stories from Joseph's journey involves a broken drone and a stroke of pure luck.
While practicing his editing skills, Joseph hired a model to run along an island shoreline while he filmed with his drone. Mid-shoot, the drone clipped the model's head, tumbled, and broke. What he didn't know was that a foreigner had been watching the whole thing. The stranger handed him a calling card and asked to see his footage.
When Joseph uploaded his video of Kalanggaman Island in Leyte, the foreigner — who ran a travel page with a massive following — asked to share his drone shots. Within days, the video exploded to millions of views, eventually hitting 10 million in a week. The foreigner gifted Joseph PHP 20,000, which he used to buy a second-hand drone and keep going.
More importantly, the experience handed him a blueprint. He noticed how the page's short videos paired stunning visuals with on-screen text explaining each place — and realized the islands around his home province were full of untapped stories.
A Two-Person "Production Team"
Watch any SEFTV video and you'd swear there's a full crew behind it: cinematic aerial shots, crisp interviews, tight pacing, fitting background music, and episodes that run a brisk 15 to 30 minutes with no dull moments. Viewers — and even fellow YouTubers — have repeatedly assumed he travels with a big team.
The truth? It's just Joseph and his partner. She handles much of the camera work while he directs the angles, then takes on nearly everything else himself: B-rolls, voice-overs, story flow, subtitles, editing, and post-production. He even got a crash course in TV-style production when Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho hired him as a drone operator for an episode shot in his hometown — an experience where staff shared shooting tips that he absorbed and carried into his own work.
A single travel vlog now takes him around two weeks from planning to final edit. As he puts it, the longer you do this, the more of a perfectionist you become.
Risking Life and Limb for the Shot
SEFTV's signature is featuring destinations most vloggers won't touch — places that are remote, expensive, and genuinely difficult to reach. He's filmed Panguan Island in Tawi-Tawi near the Malaysian border, Mangsee in Palawan, and Suluan Island at the far edge of Samar.
That ambition comes at a cost. Joseph has been in seven motorcycle accidents while traveling to shoot locations, including one in Tarlac that left him recovering for three weeks and another that broke his hand. He's since upgraded to a four-wheel pickup, which now lets him go off-road and cross mountains without proper roads — pushing even farther into the unmapped corners of the country.
By his own admission, the money stopped being the point for these far-flung trips. What drives him is simply the desire to show Filipinos parts of their own country they'd otherwise never see.
2018
2026
Award-Winning Quality, Hard-Earned
The recognition has followed. SEFTV landed in the Top 10 of the Philippine Vlogger Awards for Video Quality and Editing Skills in 2024, standing out among nearly 8,000 Filipino vloggers. He was also named 2023's Best in Travel and Adventures and a Top 100 Philippine Vlogger Awardee.
His most popular uploads read like a highlight reel of Philippine wonders: "The Golden Mountain in the Philippines" (over 4.6 million views), "The Most Dangerous Island in the Philippines," and "The Longest Bridges in the Philippines." Viewers often compare his work to big-network productions — a compliment he shrugs off with characteristic humility, saying he still has a long way to go.
What's remarkable is that he keeps the channel largely brand-free. Joseph rarely accepts sponsorships, explaining that product placements compromise the storytelling and video quality he's worked so hard to build. Most trips are funded out of his own content earnings.
What's Next for SEFTV
Joseph is already preparing for the day he runs out of Philippine destinations to feature. His sights are set on international travel, and he's begun adding subtitles to his videos as foreign viewers increasingly show up in the comments — some even sending donations in thanks.
For aspiring creators, his advice is refreshingly simple: be consistent. Keep uploading even when nobody's watching, and keep improving — because the algorithm now rewards quality content, not just big subscriber counts.
Help Us Find Our Next Destination
The best stories often come from places few have heard of. If you know an island, village, festival, heritage site, or community with a story worth sharing, we want to hear about it. Send us your suggestion and tell us why — it might just be SEFTV's next destination.