MANILA: A Filipino worker remains missing after an explosion and fire on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico last week which killed a compatriot, the foreign department said Tuesday.
Divers hired by the rig owner recovered the remains of Elroy Corporal on Saturday, a day after the accident, and are looking for a second Filipino who had been declared missing, the country's envoy to the US, Jose Cuisia said.
"We know that it has been more than 48 hours but we Filipinos always believe in miracles and we continue to pray that our other (countryman) will be found alive," Cuisia said in a written statement released by the foreign department.
He did not identify the missing man by name.
Four of the 11 injured by the blast are also Filipino.
Two of them sustained severe burns during the accident and are in "critical" condition while another was in "serious" condition at the Baton Rouge General Hospital in Louisiana, Cuisia added.
The fourth Filipino is conscious and in fair condition, the envoy said, citing the hospital's burn surgeons.
The US authorities said there were 22 people on board when the blast rocked the rig operated by Houston-based Black Elk Energy.
Nine of the 22 are Filipino workers, according to Cuisia, who added the Filipino embassy staff had yet to get in touch with the three others who he said were not among those reported seriously hurt.
The US Coast Guard had already suspended its search for the missing on Saturday before the body of the Filipino was found.
About nine million Filipinos, or 10 percent of the Philippine population, are abroad to work in better-paying jobs than they can get in their largely impoverished homeland. (AFP)
