Gerald Herbert / AP file

Damage from an explosion on an oil rig is seen in the Gulf of Mexico, about 25 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La., on Nov. 16.

The Philippine Embassy said Monday that Philippine officials have been sent to Louisiana to help Filipino workers who were wounded in an explosion and fire last week at an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

The body of one of two missing Filipino workers was found Saturday and turned over to the Jefferson Parish coroner. He was identified on Monday as Ellroy Corporal, 42. The second man, identified as Jerome Malagapo, remains missing. Four people remain hospitalized.

The U.S. Coast Guard has called off its search for Malagapo, but Black Elk Energy, the Houston-based owner of the ill-fated platform, continued looking on its own.

“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 kababayan (countryman) will be found alive,” Philippine Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia Jr. in Washington said on Sunday in a statement.

Cuisia said the remains of Corporal will be sent back to the Philippines after an autopsy. The envoy said he personally contacted Corporal’s widow, Mary Jean, in Iligan City, Philippines, to extend his sympathy and to offer assistance for her and her two children.

The embassy said Philippine consular officials are in Baton Rouge, La., to attend to Corporal’s remains and to look into how the Philippine government could assist the four Filipinos who were seriously burned in the accident.

Body found at scene of oil platform explosion in Gulf of Mexico

Two of the four remain in critical condition at Baton Rouge General Hospital’s burn unit while another is in serious condition, embassy officials said. The fourth, identified as Wilberto Ilagan, is conscious and in fair condition, according to Deputy Consul General Castro.

Ilagan, who suffered burns in 35 percent of his body, was earlier reported to have asked his doctors to inform his family in the Philippines that he is alive and well after he was earlier erroneously reported to have succumbed to injuries.

“To my relatives, to my family, and to my country, I am alive and in good health. I am burned, but my heart and lungs are healthy,” the 50-year-old Ilagan said in the message that was conveyed on his behalf by his doctors.

The missing and injured men were guest workers with Grand Isle Shipyard, an oilfield contracting company out of Galliano, La..

They were among nearly two dozen workers on the oil platform at the time of the explosion and fire.

Grand Isle Shipyard CEO Mark Pregeant said the cause of the explosion and fire isn’t known. He said initial reports that a welding torch was being used at the time of the incident or that an incorrect line was cut “are completely inaccurate."

The explosion is being investigated by the local, state and federal authorities. The fire was extinguished a few hours after the blast and Coast Guard Capt. Ed Cubanski told reporters that the platform appeared to be structurally sound.

Black Elk said no oil was leaking from the charred platform, which hadn't been operating since August.

NBC News' James Eng and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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AP

Kevin Lunsman, a kidnapped American teenager, talks to Filipino soldiers inside the Philippine military compound in the southern Philippines following his escape from suspected al-Qaida-linked militants over the weekend.

The father of an American teenager who escaped his kidnappers in the southern Philippine jungle over the weekend called his son a "hero" on Sunday.

"I'm so proud of my son, he's a hero, he wandered two days through the jungle," Heiko Lunsmann told ABC affiliate WSET in Lynchburg, Va., on Sunday.

Kevin Lunsmann, 14, escaped from suspected al-Qaida-linked militants and wandered without shoes for two days in the jungle before villagers found him, ending his five-month captivity, officials said Sunday.

"That was a tough time, it was tough five months," Heiko Lunsmann said in the first interview since his 14-year-old Kevin was taken. "I only know he is a hero and I'm so happy he escaped."

Initial reports indicated that Kevin Lunsmann had been released, but the teen told Philippine officials and his family that he evaded his four armed captors by telling them that he would take a bath in a stream and then dashing for freedom on Friday.

He followed a river down a mountain until villagers found him late the next day, local officials said according to The Associated Press.  Exhausted, hungry and still stunned, the boy initially fled from the villagers, local officials told The Associated Press.

"He was in fear so there was a bit of a chase before the villagers convinced him that they were friends," Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo said told The Associated Press. He said the boy was fine, but was exhausted and had bruises on his arms and feet.

City Mayor Celso Lobregat said he has been flown to Manila and turned over to U.S. officials there. U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas said the boy would be reunited with his family soon.

• 2 kidnapped Americans allowed to talk to family

Lobregat said the boy has talked by phone with his Filipino-American mother, Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, who was in the United States. He, his mother and a Filipino cousin were vacationing with relatives on an island near Zamboanga City when they were snatched July 12 and taken by boat to nearby Basilan.

The captors then called the family in Campbell County, Virginia, to demand a ransom, officials said.

The mother was freed two months ago after she was dropped off by boat at a wharf on Basilan. The boy's Filipino cousin escaped from their captors last month when Filipino army forces managed to get near an Abu Sayyaf camp in the mountains of Basilan, about 550 miles south of Manila.

Army Col. Ricardo Visaya said the kidnappers were believed led by Abu Sayyaf militant Puruji Indama, who is notorious for ransom kidnappings and beheadings. Troops were hunting down the militants and clashed with one group in Akbar town, near Lamitan, which may have distracted the kidnappers and gave Lunsmann a chance to flee, he said.

When Visaya asked the boy if he was freed, which would indicate that ransom was paid, or escaped, Lunsmann replied that he fled from his captors.

"No, I really did it myself," he quoted Lunsmann as telling him. Visaya said he later handed the boy to American troops based in Basilan.

Msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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