The legislative intent is not at all times accurately reflected in the manner in which the resulting law is couched. Thus, applying a verba legis or strictly literal interpretation of a statute may render it meaningless and lead to inconvenience, an absurd situation or injustice. To obviate this aberration, and bearing in mind the principle that the intent or the spirit of the law is the law itself, resort should be to the rule that the spirit of the law controls its letter. To reiterate, the purpose of Paragraph 2 of Article 26 is to avoid the absurd situation where the Filipino spouse remains married to the alien spouse who, after a foreign divorce decree that is effective in the country where it was rendered, is no longer married to the Filipino spouse. The provision is a corrective measure to address an anomaly where the Filipino spouse is tied to the marriage while the foreign spouse is free to marry under the laws of his or her country. Whether the Filipino spouse initiated the foreign divorce proceeding or not, a favorable decree dissolving the marriage bond and capacitating his or her alien spouse to remarry will have the same result: the Filipino spouse will effectively be without a husband or wife. A Filipino who initiated a foreign divorce proceeding is in the same place and in like circumstance as a Filipino who is at the receiving end of an alien initiated proceeding. Therefore, the subject provision should not make a distinction. In both instance, it is extended as a means to recognize the residual effect of the foreign divorce decree on Filipinos whose marital ties to their alien spouses are severed by operation of the latter's national law.[70] (Emphasis in the original) Recent jurisprudence, therefore, holds that a foreign divorce may be recognized in this jurisdiction as long as it is validly obtained, regardless of who among the spouses initiated the divorce proceedings. The question in this case, therefore, is not who among the spouses initiated the proceedings but rather if the divorce obtained by petitioner and respondent was valid. The Regional Trial Court found that there were two (2) kinds of divorce in Japan: judicial divorce and divorce by agreement. Petitioner and respondent's divorce was considered as a divorce by agreement, which is a valid divorce according to Japan's national law.[71] The Office of the Solicitor General likewise posits that while petitioner was able to prove that the national law of Japan allows absolute divorce, she was unable to "point to a specific provision of the Japan[ese] Civil Code which states that both judicial divorce and divorce by agreement will allow the spouses to remarry."[72] To prove its argument, the Office of the Solicitor General cites Republic v. Orbecido III,[73] where this Court stated: [R]espondent must also show that the divorce decree allows his former wife to remarry as specifically required in Article 26. Otherwise, there would be no evidence sufficient to declare that he is capacitated to enter into another marriage. Nevertheless, we are unanimous in our holding that Paragraph 2 of Article 26 of the Family Code (E.O. No. 209, as amended by E.O. No. 227), should be interpreted to allow a Filipino citizen, who has been divorced by a spouse who had acquired foreign citizenship and remarried, also to remarry. However, considering that in the present petition there is no sufficient evidence submitted and on record, we are unable to declare, based on respondent's bare allegations that his wife, who was naturalized as an American citizen, had obtained a divorce decree and had remarried an American, that respondent is now capacitated to remarry. Such declaration could only be made properly upon respondent's submission of the aforecited evidence in his favor.[74] The Office of the Solicitor General pointedly ignores that in Orbecido III, the respondent in that case neither pleaded and proved that his wife had been naturalized as an American citizen, nor presented any evidence of the national law of his alleged foreign spouse that would allow absolute divorce. In this case, respondent's nationality was not questioned. The Regional Trial Court duly admitted petitioner's presentation of respondent's national law. Article 728 of the Civil Code of Japan as quoted by the Office of the Solicitor General states: Article 728 of the Japan Civil Code reads: 1. The matrimonial relationship is terminated by divorce. 2. The same shall apply also if after the death of either husband or wife, the surviving spouse declares his or her intention to terminate the matrimonial relationship.[75]