Most of the current replies here does not even take into account what OP’s is saying. Yes, in theory VAT is paid by consumers - thats is what being taught in schools, its a consumption tax, etc.

But marami ang hindi nakaka alam or refuse to believe is that businesses (esp. small ones) are greatly affected by this too. Well, i was a victim of this too. Inaway ko si someone in VAT claiming “e hindi naman ikaw nagbabayad niyan”, its your fault for not adding the right amount of “patong”. But in reality small business are forced to compete with big ones and each other. Final price ang labanan. Wala naman pake alam ang consumers if paano mo iccompute yung VAT, basta bibilhin nila ang mas mura. This is what OP is saying. If your competitor is cheating taxes (esp. VAT because a huge chunk of items has it) e hindi mo kayang i compete yung price nila. So to survive, you are forced to compete too or find other way to reduce cost. But finding a way to reduce 12% (or even 6%) of your total sales is hard. Another thing VAT is on sales amount. So kahit wala kang income babayaran at babayaran mo yan (or should I say remit).

To OP, my suggestion is like most people says, input vat its the only way if you are already exceeding 3m sales. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a legal way to reduce VAT since ang consumer nga ang theoretically nagbabayad niyan.