MANILA, Philippines -- Student and young professionals have banded together to call the administration to “stop efforts to cover up the truth and be accountable for its immoral and corrupt acts as they pointed out the “sovereign right” of the people “to change a morally bankrupt and corrupt regime.”

The 40 organizations, among them groups and student governments from major Metro Manila universities as well as schools in Mindanao and Northern Luzon, banded under the Youth for Accountability and Truth Now (Youth ACT Now), lauded Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., key witness in the Senate inquiry into the scandal-tainted national broadband network (NBN) deal, for exposing the alleged corruption that accompanied the now scrapped contract.

“We unite in collective aspiration to knock on the conscience of our leaders and to awaken hope in the spirit of the Filipino people to bring forth a movement for truth and social change,” the youth alliance said in a statement issued Wednesday.

The student governments of Metro Manila-based law schools, under the Advocacy for Sustained Reform and Accountability (ASAR), are also holding simultaneous activities on Friday in support of Lozada, which will end in a Grand Salubong (Welcome) at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, where the NBN witness will be accorded a hero’s welcome.

Lozada himself will be guest speaker at a 2 p.m. symposium at the Ateneo Law School in Rockwell, ASAR said in a statement.

At the University of Sto. Tomas, Lozada’s alma mater, the law student council will issue its stand on the NBN issue, while at the University of the East, student leaders will launch a “brown ribbon campaign,” symbolizing the Filipino people.