This budget brief highlights the importance of the 2025 National Budget as the National Government's (NG) main instrument for achieving its economic recovery and human development goals amid the persistence of a tight fiscal situation. Issues raised in its analysis of the proposed 2025 include the reduced budget shares of primary expenditures for social and economic services due to the substantial rise in budget allocations for debt-service, national tax allotment of local government units, and personnel services in the national budget. This brief discusses the (i) sectoral distribution of the proposed national budget; (ii) ) climate change and Infrastructure expenditures; (iii) allocation by expense class, recipient units, departments, and special purpose funds; and (iv) budget utilization of the most budgeted NG departments. It concludes with a Moving Forward section that underscores the importance of prioritizing expenditures with the highest returns to the economy and that benefit citizens more directly through jobs and income opportunities.