THE Jintotolo Channel, connecting the Visayan Sea and Sibuyan Sea, is an important shipping route between Luzon and the Visayas. It is also a rich fishing ground that has made Roxas City, located south of the channel, the Seafood Capital of the Philippines. However, there's an emerging seafood capital north of the channel where you can get the freshest seafood from the local market and have them cooked while enjoying kilometers of empty white sand beaches. This is the town of Balud, on the southern tip of Masbate.